


Dawn

by punk_assnerd



Series: Crepuscular [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Hybrid Chan, M/M, Mafia gang au, Multi, Stop - Freeform, Vampire Chan, also notice the pairings, also the characters go by numbers, descriptive violence and deaths, dk is ten, except for dk and t8, i have no experience whatsoever woth guns or anything so, i kinda want the endgame ships to be a surprise, im gonna post this fic chapter by chapter and add or alter tags as i go, itll be kinda obvious by the middle of the fic tho, lots of science, mafia leader Wonwoo, mentions of huns and wepons and lots of blood, minghao is 8, my brain is fried, please, please appreviate my biology research i got a D in bio, please dont judge, so if youll just get mad that your ship isnt the endgame, the numners is by age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-02-16 16:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18695398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_assnerd/pseuds/punk_assnerd
Summary: A typical covert mission ends well but the aftermath may have been a little less pretty than Mingyu had expected.





	1. Astronomical dawn

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ THE TAGS!
> 
> ALSO the members go by numbers here. You'll figure it out as you read I'm sure it's not that hard to crack. 
> 
>  
> 
> Happy reading !
> 
> [Shout out to Sama and our KittyChan and MafiaLeaderWonu agenda♡♡]
> 
> MIND THE T A G S !!!

Mingyu's life wasn't always like this. He used to go to college. He used to work shitty hours on a cafe that sells overpriced and oversaturated coffee. He used to be a regular student who goes to a regular college and lives day to day as a regular guy. 

 

But that was before Wonwoo happened.

 

He's currently perched on the ninth floor of a ruddy old building with Eight, One, and Four. One was speaking in their com devices and Mingyu kind of feels dizzy hearing him from both ears.

"Me, Four, Eight, and Nine are in position." One's deep voice echoes in the room and in his communicator. 

"Five, what's your status?" One asks. Mingyu uses the scope on his rifle to survey the perimeter and he sees the rest of the group slip in the building through the back. Five, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve using the shadows of the building to move as quickly as possible inside. 

**_"We're in."_** Five's voice chimes in their coms. Mingyu can practically hear the smile in his voice as he spoke. 

"You could at least pretend to not be excited, Five." Eight says. Mingyu snickers and glances back to see even One smiling. 

"Knock it off. Lets get this done as quickly as possible. Two and Three are making dinner and they'd cook me for breakfast if i dont get you lot home bby dinner time." One says.

**_"I'm sure the both of them have already had you for breakfast, at least once."_ **Ten chimes in. Mingyu laughs at that and he hears a chorus of snickering in his com. One groans and cocks his gun.

"Nine, let's get this over with." One says. Mingyu nods. He puts the riffle down and reaches for his duffle bag. Mingyu rummages for the foldable crossbow Two had bought a few weeks back and smile as he pulls it out and it glints in the moonlight. He grabs for the roll of carbon fibre cable wires and hooks it up on one of the crossbow arrows.

"You all have got to see Nine with his crossbow. He looks like he's a minute away from making out with it." Four says. Mingyu glares at him as he hears another chorus of snickering in his com. Mingyu then sets up, he kneels by the window and aims for the the top of the rooftop door on the top of the target building. He breathes in, breathes out, and pulls the trigger. Mingyu's used to the recoil as the arrow flies, the cable wire whirring as it tails the arrow. When the arrow digs in the concrete slab on top of the door, Mingyu smiles. 

 

Mingyu then pulls at the wire. He grabs another arrow, loops the cable through the end, and sets it in the crossbow before shooting at the ceiling. Mingyu then tugs on the cable and sets another arrow on the crossbow, this time shooting it down on the floor. When Mingyu was done he jumps and grabs for the cable, pulling down with all his weight, and smiles when he's left hanging in the air. 

"Done." Mingyu says before jumping down. One, Four, and Eight then pulls at the cable at their waist, and locks it on the cable. 

"I'll go first, then I'll cover for when Eight comes down, then Four, then you, Nine. We need you here to cover our backs while going down." One says. His broad shoulders and slim waist framed in the window. Mingyu steals a glance at One's ass, tight in their black camo outfit, and smiles to himself. 

"I'm sure he'll cover your back real good, One." Eight says from beside Mingyu. Mingyu elbows him as One glances back at them.

"That's private property." One says, winks, and then jumps out the window. Mingyu can't help the flush in his cheeks as he grabs for his rifle again and looks through the scope. He sees One zooming down the line. Once he was on the clear he unclips his line and rolls. He looks back at them and give Mingyu a thumbs up. 

"You're up, Eight." Mingyu says. Eight hops on the ledge as gracefully. He pulls at his line and locks it on the line. Mingyu glances up and sees Eight smiling mischievously down at him.

"What? You're not gonna check out  **_my_** ass? I'm offended." Eight says. Four laughs and Mingyu glares. 

"What ass?" Mingyu comments. The smile on Eight's face turns into a glare and he jumps off the ledge. Mingyu doesn't need to look through the scope to see Eight giving him the finger. His now well groomed mullet flowing almost comically as he zips down. And just to prove how unreal he was, when he was on the clear on the building he swings back to gain momentum and unclips his line as he swings forward, doing a somersault and landing gracefully on his feet.

"Show off." Mingyu says in his com. Four hops on the ledge and laughs. He was built almost as slim as Eight, only there's a certain poise in Four's stance. He had recently dyed his hair a light shade of gray and had earned an earful from Two and Three but Four says it felps with his specialty. 

"See you down there." Four says. He jumps and blows Mingyu a kiss as he zips down. Mingyu chuckles. He rolls his eyes and was about to say something in their com when he saw a figure emerging from the back of the building. Mingyu curses.

 

"We got movement on the ground. He's right around the corner, Five. Four's on the zipline and I'd rather not waste an arrow." Mingyu says in his com. He hears Five let out a low groan before he sees him emerge from the shadows. Five, in their base, is annoying, and loud, and really annoying. He talks too much and acts cute more than half the time. But Five in the field is a totally different person. The man must've seen Four's shadow and looks up, just as Five sneaks close behind him, wraps an arm around his neck and another hand in the back of his head and snapping it in a second. He carries the man back to the shadows and Mingyu hears him in his com.

_**"Why are your guns more important than mine, again?"**_ Five asks, no hint of anything in his voice that would indicate that he just killed a man in under a minute. With just his bare hands. 

"Because mine are actual guns." Mingyu answers. He looks around the perimeter of the building again and packs his stuff. He brings out his new bow, the one Three had advised him to buy, and attaches the scope there, disassembling his rifle in under a minute and packing it in his duffel bag. He hold straps his arrow hollister in his thigh and drapes his duffel bag on his back, tightening it down as he attaches his line in the cable. 

_**"Ready?"**_ One says in their coms. Mingyu smiles, he grabs an arrow with a silver tail and sets it in his bow. 

"Ready. Five?" Mingyu asks.

**_"We've been waiting for five minutes here."_** One chuckles at that and Mingyu laughs.

**_"Well, Nine? Why don't you go ahead and knock."_** One says in his com. Mingyu smiles and jumps.

 

Mingyu can't pretend that he doesn't find this exciting. The Wind blowing past him as he lifts his bow and pulls back the arrow. He aims for the middle floor and shoots. He grabs another silver tailed arrow and shoots on the ground floor before grabbing another one and shooting the third floor. Smoke erupts out of the windows and that's when everyone starts to move. He sees One shoulder his way in the door and he hears Five laugh before his com was filled with grunts and gunshots. Mingyu calculates his distance, when he's close to the building, he grabs at the knife strapped on his lower back and cuts the cable. Mingyu free falls for a couple of seconds as he grabs for the arrows with cables on them and shoots on the window sill on the third floor. He then locks his bow, locking the line as he swings toward the second floor window. He unlocks his bow and rolls forward and lands on his knees. He takes one quick sweep around him and sees three guys standing frozen, looking at him. two on his right and one in front of him. He smiles and jumps forward

 

Mingyu's expertise lies in long range weapons, Eighth was the one who specializes in close range combats. But Three had trained them on their own weaknesses and Mingyu has to admit he's not half bad on close range. He lunges for the guy in front of him, he pulls certain parts in his bow for it to straighten out in a rather small bo staff and swings it down to the man's hand before it can reach the gun on his waist. Mingyu gives the man one whack in the head and he crumbles like a sack of potatoes he buys in the market. He then whips back and dodges to his right just in time for a bullet to miss his ear by an inch. Mingyu ducks down, bending his knees as he surges forward and avoids the bullets. He takes a swift upward hit between the man's legs and hears him whimper before his companion pushes him aside to shoot at Mingyu. Mingyu dodges easily, having mastered all the guns presented in front of him during the his first month, and smiles as he hears the familiar click of an empty mag. He lunges forward, kneeing the man in the stomach. He then sets his bow under the mans chin as he jumps over him in a flip. The man audibly chokes as he was flung on the wall as Mingyu lands on his knees. He then sees the man he hit in the balls trying to get up. Mingyu groans and kicks the guy on his neck sideways and he hits his head on the wall and crumble to the floor. 

 

Three men down and not a single arrow wasted. Mingyu frantically scopes his surroundings and goes out to the door leading to the hallway. The plan of the building was a U shaped interior plan for the second and third floor. Mingyu looks down and sees Five fluidly avoiding bullets like he's choreographed it and sees him lift his head up in front of a guy and axe kick him down. Mingyu looks to his left and sees at least five men emerge from the two rooms besides the one he just came out of. All of them holding axes, crowbars, and one even has a metal baseball bat. Mingyu smiles. Typical goons.

 

Mingyu looks down on his bow and clicks the edges. It turns back into a bow in one smooth click and Mingyu clicked on the other end and smiles as five inch blades clicks into place at the edge of his bow. He grabs a red tailed arrow and pulls it back, pointing at the men and succeeds in taunting all nine of them, then shooting the ceiling in front if him and waits as it explodes and comes down on all the guys in front of him.

"Hey!" Mingyu waits for the dust to subside before he looks up and sees Eight hanging on the edge of the hallway on the third floor. He swings back and lifts his whole body up. 

"Sorry!" Mingyu offers, smiling to himself 'cause he's so not sorry. 

 

Mingyu runs inside the rooms in the second floor and scopes for information. He scans through the cabinets and drawers and grabs every file he sees and pushes them down his back pocket. Mingyu hears the gun shots subside as he enters the last room and oddly finds it locked. He grabbed for a regular arrow and kicks the door open, lifting his bow as he goes inside. He looks around there he sees a man standing in the middle of the room with a gun pointed at his own head. 

"Take one more step and I'll shoot myself." The man growls. Mingyu looks around and sees at least three men and two women dead on the floor. He sees sets of computers around the room and what looks like a copy of Chemistry side of his homeroom in high school. a bunch of chemicals in test tubes and flasks and stuff. Only now Mingyu is sure that this one is an actual experiment and not just a fake display like the one he knows.

 

Mingyu raises his palms, he slowly leans down and sets his bow down.

"I'm assuming you need me alive, right? Right?!" The man says, his voice booming. 

"Easy." Mingyu says. The guy shakes, he's about to step forward when Mingyu looks to his right. 

And it worked. 

The guy followed his line of sight and Mingyu took the chance to grab for his bow, he points it towards the gun as he lunges forward. Mingyu manages to make him lose his grip on the gun as Mingyu grabs him by the hair and lifts his face up. 

"We do need you alive. For not, at least." Mingyu says before kneeing him in the guts and catching him as he leans forward and promptly passes out. Mingyu clicks his bow into a staff again, clicking the blades back in. He checks his back for his duffel bag and sees it still securely pressed on his back. Mingyu looks around the room and sees an open P.C. in the corner.

 

"Hey, Seven. I got a package for you." Mingyu takes the flash drive on his right shoulder pocket and stick it in the CPU.

**_"You connected?"_ **Mingyu hears Seven's voice in his com. 

"Yup." Mingyu says. A second later there was a huge smiley face on the screen before the screen goes completely black. 

**_"Got it. Nice work, Nine."_ **Seven says. Mingyu pockets the flash drive again and looks around the room. Mingyu then takes their special camera out of the pocket on his left arm and takes pictures of the room, minus the dead people, and sends it to Seven as well.

 

Mingyu then goes back to the guy and lifts him on his shoulder and goes out of the room. He looks over the hallway and sees the rest of them grouping up in the middle. None of them were severely harmed, as expected from a simple covert mission. Five was the worst looking one in them and that's just because of his arrogant belief that his _guns are the only guns i'll need_. Mingyu looks down and grins as one by one his members looks up at him. Some, like Five and One, smiling up at him, while others, like Four and Eight, glares at him.

 

"Who just single handedly conquered this bitch?" Mingyu asks, his free hand stretched to his his side dramatically as he looks down at the rest. He sees Eleven and Twelve laughing along with Ten as Eight and Four were already on their way out. Mingyu barks out his laughter as he makes his way down. 

"Come on, we need to get home while your big head can still fit in the van." One says. Mingyu smiles and goes down the stairs as the rest of them move out. 

"If we head straight home we'll make it home for dinner." One says. Mingyu smiles.

"Oh, by the way. There were computers and experiment thingies up there. Three and Seven might find something useful there. Seven's already connected and i sent him pics but, you know. He might want to check things out." Mingyu says. One grunts.

"Let's deal with that tomorrow. I'll ask Five and Eight to assist them tomorrow. You can report to Six yourself." Mingyu smiles brightly at that. They head out and sees that Eleven and Twelve have already reached the van. Four and Eight were standing by the gates, glowering, as Five tries to use really awful pick up lines on Ten as Ten laughs at them. Twelve brings the van in front of the gate and they get in one by one. Mingyu pushes the passed out man in the back, tying his hands and wrapping a bandanna around his mouth before taking his seat inside. Twelve drives off as One calls Three to report that they're on their way back. 

 

The minute they're parked in the garage, everyone goes out and heads to their own rooms save for Mingyu, Five and One. One and Five brings the man in their interrogation cell and One reminds Mingyu to report to Six.

"Nine, report formally this time, okay? I swear to god, if you let your boner speak for you again i'll shove that bow up your-" "One! I'll do it fine!" Mingyu groans as he heads inside. 

 

Their base was more like a mansion. Well, technically, it is a Mansion. A one thousand something square meter mansion, with four floors, in a three hectare lot. One says their old base was a dinghy 3 storey old building that was used as a butcher shop and warehouse before. But when Six was appointed the new head after his father died, he cut down the amount of members into a dozen and moves them to their family manor. Six was convinced his father was murdered by one of the old crew and he only let One and Three stay before recruiting the rest. 

 

Mingyu stares at the door to Six's room and gulps. He knocks three times, waits for Six to let him in before turning the knob and going in.

 

Six gets the grand master bedroom. A huge four post bed pushed to the edge in the middle of the right wall. A grand piano in the middle of the room and a sofa set on the left of the room, besides the bathroom door. Mingyu sees Six outside on the terrace. His frame silhouette on the silk curtains dancing with the breeze. Mingyu walks up to the frame of the door and sees Six looking out into the night. His slim figure perfectly framed by his clothes, a button up shirt tucked in his signature purple satin pants. His round, wire-framed glasses perched on his nose with the chains swaying softly, as if flirting with the wind and the skin by Six's neck.

"Nine. You're staring again." Six says. Mingyu clears his throat and apologizes. Six turns to him and laughs. His voice deep and full and Mingyu would embarrass himself a hundred times if he could hear that laugh at least one more time. 

"The covert mission was a success. No casualties. We got someone who may be useful. He seems to have killed some of his own men so that we would need him alive." Six was usually indifferent to their reports, nodding casually and thanking them afterwards before setting them out. But now Mingyu tensed up when Six turns to him with a glare. 

"What?" Six asks. Mingyu stammers, not knowing what he means.

"He killed his own men?" Six asked. Mingyu nodded. Six gave him a heavy pointed look and Mingyu remembers to use his words.

"Yeah. He held a gun to his head as I came in the room. I saw five people dead on the floor and it he knew that we'd need someone alive." Mingyu says. Wonwoo's cold stare passes him again and Mingyu feels cold sweat run down his back. Mingyu gulps. Six studies him for a moment and then his expression softened vissibly. He walks towards Mingyu and cupped Mingyu's right cheek. Mingyu does his best not to lean in to the touch.

"Sorry. I let my emotions get the best of me there." Six pulls his hand away and walks inside. Mingyu tails him.

 

"I heard from Three that you took half of them on your own, is that the truth?" Six asks as he unbuttons his topmost button and the buttons on his sleeves. 

"I took on the entire second floor while the rest took on the first and third." Mingyu says. Six gave him an amused look.

"Nine, don't pretend like you don't keep count." Six walks up in front of Mingyu and crosses his arms in front of his chest and gives Mingyu this pressing look he knows will melt Mingyu.

"Eleven and Twelve's intel tells us there's twenty armed men in there. Not counting the six you were supposed to take hostage. How many did you take out." Six presses on and Mingyu caves.

"Twelve. I took out twelve." Mingyu admits.

"Without using an arrow?" Six asks. Mingyu groans.

"I used one. But-" Mingyu was about to explain and maybe try to reason but Six held up a hand and Mingyu know better than to keep talking. 

"The deal was no arrows." Mingyu's ears perk at that and grins.

"Exactly. No arrows. _Arrows_. Plural. I used an _arrow._ Singular." Mingyu grins as Six gave him an amused look.

"You have a way with twisting and playing with the truth, Nine. I don't know if i should find that amusing or... concerning." Mingyu tenses at statement. He feels Six's gaze on him and Mingyu stares back confidently.

"You know my loyalty is to you. We all pledged our truth to you." Mingyu says. Six smiles at that and lifts his hand and placed it on the side of Mingyu's neck. Mingyu's gaze unwavering. 

"Mingyu." Mingyu, caught off guard by hearing his name out loud, falters, his gaze turns down to the floor as he takes a step back.

"I know you all trusted me with your truths, but you are the only one i trusted with mine." Six says. Six then held up Mingyu's chin and makes him look at him directly. 

"Say it." Six says. Mingyu feels his throat dry up. He can take on a cartel of illegal weapons and two dozen armed men without losing his mile. But a single hand on his neck and two simple words has him weak in the knees. Mingyu swallows and takes a breath.

"Wonwoo." Mingyu says. Six's gaze soften and his palm presses up Mingyu's cheek. 

"I trust you with my truth, Mingyu." Six, Wonwoo, says. Mingyu nods.

"Now go wash up. Two and Three had been cooking for hours." Wonwoo drags Mingyu by the arm and leads him outside the room. Mingyu smiles as Wonwoo closes the door. Mingyu then walks to his room, more by muscle memory as his mind floats off somewhere. 

 

When he reaches his room, though, the door was opened wide. Mingyu groans and heads in, seeing his clothes flying out of his closet. He groans and then a head of brown hair peeks out of the closet.

"Oh, hi Nine. How's the mission?" Chan says from his closet. Mingyu heads for the bathroom as he answers back. 

"It went well. I took out a dozen of guys with just one arrow, hey can you pass me some sweatpants, boxers, and a shirt? Thanks. Yeah, and i took this one guy who killed his own men so we'd keep him alive." Chan's head popped in the bathroom as Mingyu zipped open his camo jacket, tugging them off and leaving him with a skin tight black turtleneck sweater Three always makes them wear. 

"That's sick. Also congrats on the one arrow thing. Six told me about the deal you two had." Chan lifts an accusatory eyebrow at Mingyu and Mingyu throws his camo jacket on Chan. Mingyu laughs as Chan hisses at it. Mingyu's laugh, however, was cut off byt Chan shifting as he throws the jacket to the floor, hissing at it. 

 

Mingyu has only seen Chan shift for three reasons. One is if he wants to, two is if Six asks him to, and three is if he feels threatened. Now, Mingyu has a half cat Chan in the middle of his room, hissing at his jacket. Chan's hair was now pale white, cat ears protruding out of his hair as his human ears disappear into his skull, and his tail tensed up behind him. Chan's claws dig into the carpet in the middle of Mingyu's room and Mingyu groans.

"Chan! Come on, man. Not the carpet." Mingyu steps closer, he was about to scold Chan when Chan pounced on him pinning him to the floor his his hand around Mingyu's neck. Mingyu can feel the claws slowly puncture his turtleneck and his skin as his pale blue cat eyes bore down into his. Chan must've had a whiff of Mingyu's blood 'cause his eyes turn blinks back into brown and he scampers off of Mingyu. Chan then crawls back till his back was to the wall. Mingyu sits up and was about to yell at Chan but stops himself when he sees Chan close to tears, his eyes not leaving Mingyu's jacket.

 

Mingyu stands up and kneels in front of Chan. Chan points a finger at Mingyu's jacket before wrapping his arms around Mingyu's still bleeding neck and crying in his chest. Mingyu looks down at his jacket and his mind finally connects the dots. He wraps an arm around Chan, carrying him as he grabs his jacket on the other hand. He makes his way out of his room and down to the common room.

"Everyone to the common room, now. I repeat. Common room. Now." Mingyu races down the stairs as Chan continues to cry on his chest.

"Chan recognizes the man's scent on my jacket. We need to get info from him now." Mingyu says in his com. He hears all of them reply one by one as he swings the door open and sets Chan in one of the chairs He throws his jacket on the other side of the room and looks down at Chan. He was still staring at Mingyu's jacket.

 

"I remember him. They're... They were the bad people I ran away from." Chan cries. Mingyu clenches his fist as he comforts Chan. The door opens and It's One and Five. They were both still in their camo suits as well. Mingyu stands up straight and looks over the two.

"This mission just got personal." Mingyu says. Five kneels in front of Chan and Chan wraps his arms around his shoulders.

"Six won't be happy about this." One says. Mingyu sighs. They wait as one by one their members came in. Six comes in last, a minute later than Seven with his laptop. He scans the room, and then his eyes lands on Mingyu then moves down to Chan. Six gave him a pointed look, seemingly questioning if he's sure about what he said, and Mingyu nodded. Six then looks over Mingyu's shoulder and looks at Two.

 

"Sorry, Two. But It looks like we're moving the dinner here, for tonight." Six says. Two and Three nods and everyone else took a seat. 

  
  


Seven, the smallest and the most intimidating one of them, was seated in the middle of the room. He was typing furiously at his laptop as the rest try to relive their experience earlier that night to connect the intel they've all gathered individually. 

 

"Nine managed to connect me to one of their P.C.s and I've been looking through their files. Sorting them out and trying to see what they were up to." Seven then takes a sip of his canned coke before continuing.

"Then Nine says Chan recognizes the man you brought in so i looked up keywords among all of their files. 'Vampires'. 'Hybrid', stuff related to Chan." Seven then typed frantically on his laptop again and grabbed for the remote of the room to dim the lights and to turn on the projector. Chan whimpers as the lights dim and clings closer to Wonwoo's side. Seven apologizes to Chan and went on.

"Look." Seven then projected into the screen a couple of documents. Mingyu tried to read the documents but almost half of them are blacked out. 

"Why is it like that?" Six asked. 

"Exactly. I skimmed through the files and it seems like the documents only have enough info for these scientists to know what they're assigned to do. But outside of that, everything is confidential. Even for them." Seven types frantically again and it shows a document with a list of random numbers on. Each has a check on the right aside from one.

"Those are coordinates." Three adds. Seven nods.

"Half of these are from outside our areas." Eleven adds. He specializes on local surveillances so he should know.

"Hold on." Eleven adds. Seven looks up at him and Eleven points at the screen.

"That's..." Eleven was pointing at the only coordinates with a cross mark on it. Seven nods. Seven opens up the map and types up the coordinates. The map moves over a clearing just by the hill near the edge of their territory. Mingyu wonders how any of this was relevant. Seven then shows a satellite image of the map in real time and the image shows the ruins of a familiar ruins. 

 

Mingyu instinctively turns to Chan and sees him burying his face in Six's chest as Six wraps a protective arm over him.

"That's..." One says. He didn't need to finish. None of them had to. It was the facility that had been running secretly under the radar for years that Six's father had ignored. A year after Six's position, he had ordered, and lead, a full team assault on the facility. Mingyu had come out of that mission with a dislocated shoulder and a busted right eardrum. But the thing he remembers most that day was the one Six inflicted. 

The one he inflicted on Chan.

 

"So, they're really part of this. But why are they resurfacing now? After three years?" Three inquires. Seven keeps typing on his laptop and Mingyu looks around. All twelve seats were taken. He'd gladly allow Chan to have his seat, really. But exhaustion suddenly rushes through his bones and the food on the table makes him feel even more light headed.

 

Seven pulls up a couple of documents on the screen again and Mingyu forces himself to focus. The screen shows a couple of pictures. One was one of the two dead women, scientists, in the room and the other was-

 

"That's him." Mingyu says. 

"Doctor Kim Hyungjin, specializes in cross species genetics. He's the head scientist of their experiments, according to their files, and he's been on countless articles worldwide." Seven then pulls up articles about him and Mingyu grimace.

"Not flattering articles, but, articles nonetheless." Seven adds. He's been detained countless of times for inhumane researches and experiments to prove his theories. And theories about genes usually involves living beings.

" 'Local doctor stripped off his teaching rights for conducting unauthorized experiments with students' pets.'" Four read aloud.

" _'Korean Doctor questioned on his peculiar ways of research, retaliates and kills a reporter for publishing an article about his ruthless ways.'_ " Twelve translates an english article. Mingyu's blood boil as he reads through the other articles and one word keeps popping up.

 

**_Inhumane._ **

**_Malevolent._ **

**_Ruthless._ **

 

Two stands up in his seat and makes Mingyu sit as he goes around the room and kneels next to Chan. Mingyu belatedly realizes Chan was mid shift. The roots of his hair turning white as his right eye glimmers a pale cold blue as he lifts his head from Six's hold. Chan turns and looks onto Two as he whispers something Chan. Chan nods and Jeonghan takes his hand in his as they make their way out.

**_"I'll be listening in. Go ahead. I'll distract Chan with ice cream."_ **Mingyu smiles despite himself as he sighs into his seat. His legs screams in delight as he stretches them from underneath him. He feels an arm on top of his and sees Twelve smile down on him. Mingyu feels lightheaded all of a sudden and Twelve's face turns into a concerned one. He reaches for Mingyu's neck and pulls down his turtle neck with a gasp.

"Nine! You're bleeding!" Everyone's head whips towards him as he feels Twelve's warm hands on his neck. Suddenly, his head feels too heavy to lift and his vision turns black.

  
  


* * *

 


	2. Nautical dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Okay, mister I'm fine. Mind telling me how well you're doing?" Three says in a calm and soft voice which scares Mingyu even more.
> 
> "I'm feeling rested?" Mingyu says, a little unsure. One chuckles behind Three and Eight shakes his head. As if completely done with Mingyu.
> 
> "Yeah! I'm feeling real chipper today!" Mingyu says happily. Three smiles down at him but somehow Mingyu feels like this is way worse than glaring.
> 
> "Yeah? And is the bleeding on your neck just a new trend you're trying?" Three asks. Mingyu hears something shatter on the floor as his hand goes up his neck. 
> 
>  
> 
> Or 
> 
> Mingyu finally wakes up and business goes as per usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. I finished the fic early  
> [I actually finished it yesterday but I gotta pace this well]
> 
> I edited the fic title as the Series title bec I just redid the concept a bit but the story goes as planned!
> 
>  
> 
> Mind the tags please   
> Also the final pairings are up bec I just feel like putting them on now.
> 
>  
> 
> Happy reading!!!

 

Mingyu startles himself awake. He sits up on the bed he's on, which he belatedly recognizes as his own bed. He whips his head around and he sees Twelve beside him, sitting on top of the covers as his back was leaning on the headboard, legs outstretched. He sees a white cat curled on his lap and Mingyu smiles as Chan purrs softly, still sleeping. Twelve's already changed into a loose sweatpants and a large shirt. Mingyu looks down and realizes he's changed, too. And then he feels a strain on his neck and reaches up to feel what seems like gauze around his neck. He peels it off and hisses as cold air brushes on his neck. 

 

"Don't." Twelve says. His eyes were still closed as he lifts a hand and runs it over Chan's fur. Chan purrs even more as he leans into the touch and then blinks himself awake. Mingyu watches as Chan stares up at him and then mewls quietly before standing up and padding towards Mingyu. He bumps his head softly at Mingyu's leg before Mingyu picks him up and settles him on his lap. 

"He's feeling a little guilty."  Twelve adds. Mingyu looks down at Chan curled up in his lap and smiles.

"He shouldn't be. I was just tired from yesterday's mission." Mingyu runs a finger on top of Chan's head trails it down to his nose. Chan's whiskers flutter then he looks up. A second passes and Chan decided to shift right then and there, wearing his usual clothes of boxers and a shirt five sizes bigger than him. His arms are around Mingyu's neck in an instant as his legs are on either side of Mingyu's. Mingyu wraps his arms around Chan's waist as Chan squeezes him in a hug. Mingyu then rubs his hand up and down Chan's back, trying his best to comfort Chan as Twelve chuckles. 

 

Among their group, Chan had taken a liking to the two of them, for some reason. Well, the two of them, Six, and Two. But all of them are practically in love with Two and being drawn to Six is kind of part of their job description. Mingyu pulls Chan back so he's sitting on Mingyu's legs and Chan apologizes. Mingyu laughs and belatedly recognizes the shirt Chan's wearing.

"So you actually found what you were looking for last night?" Mingyu looks at his shirt and looks back up at Chan. Chan beams proudly and nods. 

"I'm just glad he didn't go through my closet." Mingyu gives Twelve a side glance and a raised eyebrow. Twelve flushes.

"I keep telling you that you need a better place for your _toys_ when Chan could just easily ransack our rooms." Mingyu says. Twelve groans, grabs a pillow and hits Mingyu in the face with it. Twelve stands up and says he'll update Two and Six that Mingyu's awake. Twelve told him to shower before coming down for breakfast. Mingyu nods as he lifts Chan off his lap and stands up. He asks Chan to get him something to wear as Mingyu takes a hot bath. Chan nods and Mingyu goes in the bathroom.

 

Mingyu peels off the taped gauze on his neck and hisses at the stinging. He looks in the mirror and sees four little crescent moons of broken flesh on the left side of his neck and a deep looking one on the right. He looks up in the mirror from his neck and sees Chan looking at him with wide eyes over his shoulder. Mingyu smiles. He then goes in the shower area, strips off his clothes, and turns the shower on with the hottest setting. Mingyu lets the cold water hit his head first and then shivers as warm water hits his body. His neck stings for the first five minutes of his shower and sighs as he feels the hot water releases all the tension from every muscle in his body. He just stands there under the water for at least ten more minutes before he actually washes up. He's surprised he's not as dirty as he thought, given that he had soot and dust all over him from last night. He scrubs thoroughly and shampoos his hair. His hair was getting longer now, almost going past his ears and nose. He takes a mental note to ask Three for a haircut before rinsing down and grabbing for his towel. He dries himself off in the shower area, seeing Chan's figure sitting in the toilet with what Mingyu assumes as his clothes in his hands. Mingyu asks for the boxers and Chan hands it wordlessly. Mingyu puts it on and drapes his towel around his neck. Mingyu pulls the shower curtain open and smiles at Chan. He grabs his clothes from Chan and tugs them on in his room before placing his towel back. He smiles at Chan waiting patiently on his bed and holds out his right hand for him to take. Chan bounds up and held onto it as they made their way out and down to the dining area.

 

The moment Mingyu enters the kitchen he's faced with three glaring faces, one amused and satisfied smirk, and an indifferent face in front of a laptop. One was making coffee by the counter on the left most part of the room, Three was setting plates of food on the table, and Eight was seated on the dining table already. And Mingyu would rather take an arrow in the eye than experience this any longer. Twelve was seated on the counter at the right, besides Seven's laptop as Seven furiously types on his laptop. Chan drags Mingyu in and he can still feel the weight of three swords boring down his head as Chan made him sit before bounding up next to One, saying he'll make his coffee for him. 

 

"Last night-" Mingyu starts, but was cut off by One.

"Was unacceptable." One says.

"Could have been avoided." Three adds with his _stern_ voice. Mingyu sighs.

"Was completely idiotic." Eight says, distastefully.  Mingyu groans in his seat. He sees One pour coffee on the mug in front of Chan and Chan goes to the refrigerator for some condensed milk. Mingyu smiles as Chan pours just the right amount before stirring it.

"I'm sorry, okay! I'm fine." Mingyu adds. Three scoffs at him, crosses his arms in front of his chest ass he glares down Mingyu. Mingyu knows there's a dozen other people here in the house with him but he knows Four people he should never piss off. Seven was the fourth on the list. Mingyu once saw Seven scold One for accidentally shooting a P.C. which could have been important intel. One was almost twice his size but Seven chewed him off for hours and would've gone on for hours more if Six hadn't have intervened. Six, surprisingly, was just third on Mingyu's list. He has authority over all of them but Mingyu is more scared of two other people in their group. Second on his list was Three. Three is honestly an angel. He's always calm and collected during meetings, handling the team well when briefing them of possible trouble in their territory and always offers them a smile and a gentle hand on the shoulder after a rough mission. But when he's pissed, he's pissed. He once made One sleep outside. Outside, on the steps of the mansion's foyer. All of them wanted to intervene, seeing their field leader getting kicked outside like a puppy caught chewing the curtains. But one gentle sweep of Three's gaze on all of them and everyone stood still, head hung low as he opens the door for One, carrying two pillows and a blanket over his shoulders. Two was even scarier, though. But Mingyu would rather not relive that memory.

 

"Okay, mister ** _I'm fine_**. Mind telling me how well you're doing?" Three says in a calm and soft voice which scares Mingyu even more. 

"I'm feeling rested?" Mingyu says, a little unsure. One chuckles behind Three and Eight shakes his head. As if completely done with Mingyu.

"Yeah! I'm feeling real chipper today!" Mingyu says happily. Three smiles down at him but somehow Mingyu feels like this is way worse than glaring. 

"Yeah? And is the bleeding on your neck just a new trend you're trying?" Three asks. Mingyu hears something shatter on the floor as his hand goes up his neck. Chan was standing in front of the counter with broken pieces of mug scattered around his feet and coffee splattered around him. Chan catches Mingyu's gaze and his gaze goes down to Mingyu's neck. Mingyu hears Three sigh as he grabs Mingyu's hand and drags him out of the room. He asks Twelve and One to help Chan clean up and Mingyu looks over his shoulder as Chan looks on, his face following Mingyu's.

 

Three had dragged him to the common room and made Mingyu take a seat as he goes to one of the cabinets in the room for what looks like the first aid kit.

"You kids think that just because you can kill a ton of people with your bare hands that you're above being human. All of you are tiring. And personally, I think you all got it from One." Three says as he cleans Mingyu's neck.

"One really needs to keep you all in check. But then again, he needs to keep _himself_ in check sometimes too." Three rambles on. Groaning.  He watches on as Three rips open a packet of gauze and places it gently on Mingyu's neck before rummaging for the tape.

"One more incident like this, hold this for me," Mingyu reaches and helds the gauze on his neck as Three grabs for masking tape. "one more incident like this and I'll let Two disipline you lot." Three tapes the gauze on all four sides as he gives Mingyu a pointed look.

"Got it?" Three ask. Mingyu nods and swallows.

"Good. Now, come on. Two is almost finish with breakfast." Three leads them back to the dining room and sees everyone was already here, save for Six.

 

One was helping Two bring out the food from the kitchen, Three leaving Mingyu's side to help them. Four and Five were talking by the coffee machine, Five's t-shirt and boxers not hiding the forming bruises on his thighs and legs and even on his arms. Seven was still on the counter but now with Eleven and Ten on either side of him, adding inputs as Seven types furiously on his laptop. Mingyu smiles, seeing them all wearing the same shirt and sweatpants as him. Eight was still on his seat, wearing his usual tracksuit, as he talks to Twelve about something with his phone held in front of both of them. Mingyu takes the seat besides Twelve and groans. 

"Chan?" Mingyu asks. Twelve and Eight looks up and smiles a bit sadly. 

"One made him get Six." Twelve says. Eight then drags a mug over in front of Mingyu and Mingyu smiles as he sees Chan's favorite mug. It had a sleeping cat design on it and the tail goes out into the handle. Mingyu takes a sip of his coffee and sighs. Two placed the last plate of food in front of them and called over Seven, Eleven, and Ten so they can start with breakfast.

  
  


One, Seven, and Eleven briefs Mingyu on what went on yesterday after he passed out.

"Embarrassingly so, might i add." Eleven says. Mingyu glares.

Three and Seven are going back to the area today with One, Four, Ten, and Eight. Eleven and Twelve were to scope out more information about these labs, Five is going with Eleven for assist and Mingyu is going with Twelve. 

"We can take care of ourselves." Eleven adds. Two gave them a look, The Look, and Eleven sighs.

"Everyone here can take care of themselves, even Three and Seven can take care of themselves. But we take precautions for things like this." Two adds. Mingyu asks what happens to the man they took in and One scowls.

"Arrogant asshole won't talk. Six says he'll interrogate him himself later after everyone was back." Mingyu grins at that. Six interrogating means serious fun. 

 

The briefing was cut short as Six comes through the door with a smile and greets everyone a good morning, Chan towed in his left hand. Mingyu smiles as he sees Chan wearing a different shirt now, a button up shirt which means it's Six's. They made their way towards the table and Two smiles as he offers Chan the tuna omelette he made specifically for Chan. Chan smiles as he thanks Two and breakfast went on swimmingly. Six was taking Two and Chan out for business, their local business they use as cover for their _actual_ business. Everyone goes back to their own room afterwards to change into gear. 

 

Mingyu goes for his denim jacket and makes sure to double check all the equipment he has on it before going to their armory for his duffel bag. Mingyu packs his signature assault rifle and his bow. He turns the bow into staff mode and folds it in half to make it fit in his duffle. He grabs for more arrows and made sure to bring more smoke bomb one after last night's events. He was half way through fitting his arrow hollister in his bag when Twelve comes in through the armory door. 

 

Twelve was in his casual gear as well. He takes off the large leather jacket he has on, leaving him in a fitted deep green shirt with his two gun holster on either side of his chest he then takes the ninja sword off of the rack and wears it on his lower back, the handle facing down, the tip not going past Twelve waist, as the body of the sword was plastered on his back. Eight has told them all about the _Tanto_ , the double edged, twelve inch blade and Mingyu thinks Twelve has grown attached to the blade all because it's a twelve inch blade. Twelve adjusts the backstrap of the blade and Mingyu matches as the hilt of the blade bounces on his ass. 

 

"You have got to stop with the staring, Nine. Some people might get the wrong idea when you stare at their ass like that." Twelve says as he grabs for one of the _Sai_ in front of him and made a show of twirling it in his left hand before strapping them on his lower back.

"Only enjoying the view." Mingyu says offhandedly. He still needs close range weapons so he goes for the twin push daggers Eight had shown him before. Mingyu loves using these cause they're like kunais but you hold onto them like knuckle guards, the knife pointing outwards in the middle of your middle and ring finger as you close you fist on the handles. Mingyu straps it on his lower back and saddles on his duffel bag before smiling down at Twelve.

 

"Ready?" Mingyu smiles. Twelve looks at him and rolls his eyes.

"You could at least pretend like you don't enjoy our job, you know." Twelve says, grabbing for his Jacket and successfully hiding every weapon he has on it. 

"I am an honest man, Twelve. I would never lie in front of a pretty face." Mingyu winks and Twelve laughs as he heads out. Mingyu follows suit and reaches for his special belt hung at the edge of the rack before closing the door. 

  
  


Mingyu drives the two of them towards Twelve's informant. Twelve gives Mingyu the info he's gathered from Three and Seven and they both want Twelve to gather as much intel on outside operations those labs have covered. 

"My sources all point to this one guy who sells meds for half the price. Prescription for various illnesses and conditions. People don't really question things like this. Well, they'd rather not, i guess. It's obviously shady business, but that's when you're sure you can get what you want. You know?' Twelve lets on. Mingyu nods. Personally, he had no experience with these business. But he can see what twelve means. 

 

Twelve set their gps to a bar on the outskirts of town and it took them a good half hour of drive to get there. Twelve messing with the radio and singing along to random pop songs Mingyu usually hears when three sets the speakers on their training room. Mingyu laughs as Twelve belts out a note they both know he can't reach and they double in laughter as Twelve's voice cracks. They eventually made it to the bar. Mingyu checks the time and sees that it's just half an hour past nine. He smiles at Twelve before they park a block down the bar and jump off the van.

 

They both blend in with the crowd. They both could pass for college students on a road trip, just like Mingyu had suggested for their back story, and Twelve laughs as he nods along. They make their way towards the bar and goes in without a knock. 

 

It's a typical bar, as far as Mingyu can say. Time worn tables with worn out stools, the bar lined with bottles with various shapes, sizes, and colors. Mingyu sees a man behind the bar carrying a crate out and seems to be heading for the kitchen door on the far side of the room.

 

"Excuse me? This is the right Warfair bar, right?" Twelve asks. The man looks over his shoulder and grins. 

"Well, i don't know about it being the right one but it's the only one around these parts." The man eyes them up and down and Mingyu can't help but do the same. 

 

The man was heavily built with a bit of pudge, Mingyu detects it's from all the booze and decides to leave it at that. He had a complete sleeve of tattoos on his right arm and Mingyu notices a cross-like scar on the man's wrist. He was wearing a plain shirt and cargo pants with a towel draped over his shoulder. Mingyu studies the man's face and the man looks maybe around late thirties. He smiles at them and puts the crate down by the kitchen door, leaving it ajar.

"You folks don't look like you're from around here." The man says. Twelve laughs lightly at that and Mingyu smiles.

"Yeah, no. We're just passing by and one of our friends said we could get some, uh..." Twelve fakes a nervous voice. Mingyu smiles internally but plays along as he nudges Twelve's shoulder. 

"He said to ask for Tonic?" Twelve asks. The man studies their faces again and smiles wider.

"You're looking at him." the man says. Twelve fakes a nervous glance at Mingyu and Mingyu has to keep himself from laughing at how good an actor Twelve is. 

 

"Your friend, is he from here? Are you Rocket?" Twelve perks up and Mingyu raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Did he tell you i'll come?" the man goes back around the bar and leans down as he rummages for something. Mingyu chances a glance at Twelve and Twelve gave him a sly smirk and a wink. The man straightens up and hands Twelve a small film canister for those old school cameras Eight uses. Twelve reaches for a wad of cash in his jacket pocket and it lifts up a bit. Mingyu notices the man tense up and Mingyu's hands inches towards his waist.

"I almost forgot! You'll need prescription for that. You know, when to take it, how much to take. And you'll need to restock, eventually. You and your friend, uh.." tonic drawls out and Mingyu realizes he's waiting for his name. Mingyu panics and his eyes fleet up behind the man. 

"Jin." Mingyu says. 

"Right. Well, either of you can pick it up whenever." The man says as he writes something down on his notepad he took from his back pocket. It must be a very detailed prescription cause it takes him a minute to finish. He smiles up at them and Twelve takes the folded note from the man and pockets the canister as the man smiles. Mingyu noticed a slight twinge from the man's smile. He notices the man's forehead starting to gleam from sweat and Mingyu conjures up a smile as he wraps an arm around Twelve and turns to head out. As they turn around, though, the door was blocked by five men smirking at them.

"Leaving so soon?" the one in the middle says. Mingyu drops his arm off of Twelve's shoulder and feigns confusion. 

"Woah. Hey. We're just here for business." Mingyu says. The man smirks and pulls out a gun from his back. He lifts it up on his left hand and points it in between the two of them and cocks it. 

"So are we." The man says before pulling the trigger. 

 

Both Mingyu and Twelve jump apart and lunges forward. Mingyu has no time to get his bow from his bag so he reaches for the push daggers behind his back and slashes the man's arm. He drops the gun with a scream as he uses his other hand to grab for Mingyu. Mingyu jumps back and surveys the field. Two of the guys on the right are on to Twelve as Twelve uses his _Sais_ to counter one man's advances on him as he dodges another's bullets. Mingyu sees the three men in front of him gather around him. the middle one cradling his injured arm as he steps back, letting the other two push past him. Mingyu throws the push dagger on his right arm towards the man and he reaches for his belt as the man dodges the dagger. Mingyu whips his belt off and he doesn't need to look over Twelve to see him smiling at him.

"Don't overdo it, _Jin_." Twelve teases and Mingyu smiles. He holds onto the edge of his belt and whips it down, Three had gotten this metal chain whip Eight had customized into a belt and it's been one of Mingyu's favorites ever since. He flicks it towards the man in front of him and he stupidly held out his hand to catch it. Mingyu smirks at the whip digs into his skin as it wraps around his hand. Mingyu steps on the middle of the whip and the man falls on his face. The second man rushes towards Mingyu and Mingyu dodges as he swings his fist towards Mingyu. Mingyu ducks, sweeps his push dagger on the man's throat and lets him fall on the ground behind him, choking on his own blood. Mingyu looks up at the first man again and he has his gun in his other hand now. His left hand on his side, dripping blood.

 

"Any last words, pretty boy?" Mingyu tenses and sees movement from his right before smiling. 

"Sorry to disappoint but," Twelve moves up in front of the man, his sword held up on the man's throat. "he's the pretty one here." Mingyu finishes. Twelve pulls back his sword and hits the man on the neck and he crumbles to the ground. Mingyu then hears the man in front of him scrambling free from his whip and stands up. he makes a run towards the kitchen door and Mingyu flicks the whip down on the man's ankle and pulls hard. The man yelps, falls to the ground face first and turns himself around and raises his hands. 

"Wait. Please! Don't kill me! I'll tell you anything!" Mingyu scowls and he hears Twelve whistles behind him. Twelve throws the man's gun towards Mingyu and Mingyu drops the push dagger in his left hand and catches the gun smoothly.

"I really hate stupid, typical goons." Mingyu says. He cocks the gun and points it down the man's face.

"But one thing i hate more than stupid goons," Mingyu smiles down at the man as he lifts his hand towards mingyu, shaking them as if it'll actually make Mingyu stop, "are stupid goons without honor." Mingyu pulls the trigger and it's a clean shot right in the middle of the guy's eyebrows. Mingyu looks over at Twelve and sees him tying up the man and tying a cloth over the man's bleeding arm. Mingyu was about to walk towards him to help when he feels hands on his back.

 

Mingyu jumps and turns to aim the gun only to see Tonic fall on the floor, a single bullet wound on the middle of his chest as his shirt blooms into a deep dark red. Mingyu drops the gun and kneels beside the man.

"Don't-" Tonic says.

"The pills. The note." Tonic chokes out. Twelve comes up beside him and looks down as the man chokes out blood and breathes out. He doesn't breathe in afterwards. 

 

Twelve sits back on his ass and groans.

"Great. Just great." Twelve says, dejected. Mingyu closes the Tonic's eyes and checks his pockets for his phone. He pulls out another similar canister from his pockets and opens it.

"Pills." Mingyu says. "The pills and the note." Mingyu whispers. Mingyu then whips around and looks at Twelve.

"The Note! The prescription he gave!" Mingyu crawls over and pats Twelve's jacket down and pulls out the note Tonic wrote out. Mingyu reads it and smiles.

 

"I'll get the van. You drag fatso to the back, though the kitchen. I'll meet you in five." Mingyu stands up. Untangling his whip and picking up his push daggers and strapping them back. 

"This," Mingyu waves the piece of paper in front of Twelve's confused face and laughs, "this is gonna make Three and Seven so, so happy." Mingyu says as he rushes out.

  
  
  


They reach the house at around a quarter past ten and Mingyu helps Twelve carry Fatso over to their holding cell and sets him in one of the empty cells. The cells all have a toilet and a single metal counter used as their bed and a one way mirror on one side of the wall. Mingyu unties him and sets him on the bed and pulls Twelve out. They race inside and sees Six and Chan on the couch in the living area in front of the main doors. Six was reading a book in his right hand and his left hand on the back rest of the sofa. Chan's head was on his lap as he mindlessly talks to Six. They both look up as Mingyu and twelve comes in and Mingyu smiles.

"Is everyone here?" Mingyu asks. He can feels his heart beating fast as he pants.

"You're the last to arrive, so yes. Found anything useful?" Mingyu nods excitedly and Six gave him a look. Right. Words.

"Uh... Yeah... we.. uh.." Mingyu's head feels light again. He tries catching his breath but he falls short and ends up choking. He places his hands on his knees as he feels Twelve's familiar palm on his lower back. He looks up at Chan's and Six's Worried faces and he feels his head go numb as Six stands up on his feet, throws the book on the sofa as he runs towards Mingyu. 

 

Mingyu feels his bag digging at his back as the cold from the tiles seeps through his denim jacket. He looks up and sees Twelve and Six talking over him. Mingyu's eyes focus over their heads and at the chandelier on the ceiling and the last thing he feels are warm wands on his face before blacking out for the second time in under twenty four hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea why I end the chapters with Mingyu fainting but, well, it's a good way to cut the chapter off heh
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for reading !! Last chapter of the first installment should be up by the end of next week :))


	3. Civil dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu wakes up on Ten's clinic with Twelve staring at him in a way that made him wish he didn't wake up at all.
> 
> They find out what's really going on with him, Seven digs up a rather disturbing intel, Twelve makes Mingyu feel like shit, Eight made him feel shittier, and another revealation makes Mingyu wish he couldve slept through it all.
> 
> And if Mingyu faints again, he might end up shooting someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not expect this to go this way but here we are.
> 
> Trigger warnings:  
> A lot more graphic scenes  
> Mentions of lots of blood  
> B L O O D  
> also more implied sexual content
> 
> I have planned and mapped out the whole story for this and i hope i can STICK to it lmao ive already changed a few ships by now. I hope you see the hints.
> 
> ALSO PLEASE BARE WITH ALL THE SCIENCEY STUFF 
> 
>  
> 
> Also  
> I wrote half of this when im high on coffee at around 3AM for five days so please understand. Also this is unbetad hehe

  
  


Mingyu feels warm sheets. Both under and over him. The linen scratching his skin and making him groan as he tries to move. He sits himself up and tries to open his eyes when blinding light pierces his eyes. He yelps and moves his hands over his eyes as he hears a loud clanging of metal to his left. He then hears a few thuds on the floor and almost jumps as he feels something hot on his back.

 

"Nine?" Mingyu's head rings at the loud sound and flinches away from the hot touch. 

"Nine, lie back down!" Mingyu realizes it's Ten and that he's probably in the clinic right now. Mingyu groans and tries to open his eyes again. His eyes adjust to the light and he blinks slowly as Ten's worried face comes into focus in front of him. 

"Lie back down or I'm tying you down." Ten threatens. Mingyu drops his hands on his lap and smiles up at Ten. 

"That's awfully kinky of you." Mingyu says. Ten chuckles and rolls his eyes. Mingyu sees him turn on his com before pushing Mingyu back down on the bed.

"You guys hear that? He's fine. Probably just dehydrated or something." Ten says. Mingyu closes his eyes again, he can still feel a slight throbbing at the back of his head. He smooths his palms over the sheets and sighs as they don't feel as uncomfortable and warm as before. Mingyu drones out Ten reporting to the rest and just lies back down.

 

He remembers Twelve's and Six's worried faces and groans.

 

He is so dead.

 

He'll probably be better off in a coma now because Twelve is gonna be so pissed and Six is gonna be so disappointed. 

 

"Nine?" Mingyu turns his head to the left and sees Ten looking over his shoulder. He's facing his double monitored P.C. and Mingyu sees him pointing toward the right side of the room. Mingyu looks over his feet to see everyone else in front of the mirror to the hallway. Twelve was in the middle of them all with Chan beside him and he says something to One who was closest to the door. One turns the mic on and Mingyu smiles as he hears their light chatter through a speaker.

"You doing okay?" Twelve asks. Mingyu smiles.

"Yeah." Mingyu responds. Twelve then glares at Mingyu and Mingyu's smile falters.

"Good. Cause I'm gonna kill you myself. I'll fucking kill you with my  _ bare _ hands." Twelve says. Mingyu gulps. He knows Twelve won't actually kill him but he also knows that Twelve will come up with some sort of payback for this.

"Twelve." Six reprimands. Twelve audibly huffs and stalks out of the hallway, Mingyu wasn't sure if Twelve was wearing what he thinks he's wearing and he disappears before Mingyu could be sure.

 

Half them heads out as well leaving One, Two, Three, and Six standing in front of the mirror with their own personal versions of the   _ I'm about to scold you _ look. Two with his hands behind his back, head tilted to the side with his chin held up just a bit, Three and One with their arms crossed in front of their chests, One with his arms flexing as if he's literally pulling himself back from strangling Mingyu right then and there, and Three with his jaw locked, and Six with one hand in his pocket and his head tilted.

 

One thing they all have in common, though, is the intense and heavy gaze of sheer disappointment and a slight tinge of annoyance. 

 

And Love. Mingyu's gonna pretend he sees love in there somewhere.

 

"Ten, is he in the clear?" Two asked. Ten looked over at the mirror and then looked over his shoulder at Mingyu. Mingyu gave him a pleading look and smiled.

"Please tell them I'm still not in the clear. Take blood samples or something. Ten, please. Take one of my kidneys. Or both." Ten smiles innocently as he goes back to typing on his keyboard before smiling back on the three of them. 

 

He was about to say something when one of the monitors blinks red as it gave off a sort beeping sound. Ten goes to the back of the room and Mingyu can't see much over Ten's shoulders but he sits up and looks over. Ten then whips around and looks at Mingyu with wide eyes.

 

"What? Is it bad? Am i actually dying?" Nothing.

"Twelve's not gonna like that." Mingyu jokes. Ten moves towards the door beside his computer and goes in in a rush.

"Ten! What's going on?" One demands and Ten emerges in the room with a pen in his hand. He moves closer to Mingyu and-

Oh no. That's not a pen.

 

Mingyu pulls back as Ten reaches for his hand but Mingyu, still feeling weak, couldn't shake off Ten's grip on his hand. Mingyu screams as Ten drags the scalpel across his arm and then Ten's grip and the cold blade breaking his skin was gone. He hears the scalpel scattered on the floor as Six's arm was around Mingyu's shoulder. Mingyu sees One and Three holding off Ten and Ten points at Mingyu's arm and screams at them to look. Two gasps from the foot of Mingyu's bed as Mingyu feels Six's comforting and warm arm leave his shoulder. Mingyu watches on, like the rest of them, as the gash on Mingyu's arm closes neatly. The only proof that Ten had wounded him was the line of blood trailing down his hand. 

 

"What the hell?" One's voice spoke over the silence. Mingyu looks up at Two, he looks confused and a bit scared. Mingyu looks to his left and sees One and Three letting go of Ten as Ten scrambles back to his P.C.. Mingyu looks up at Six and for the first time sees him looking shocked and somehow distraught. Mingyu feels panic rising in his chest. He cradles his hands and looks up at Six.

 

"What's going on with him, Ten?" Six demands, his gaze not leaving Mingyu as he inches closer. Mingyu's breathing starts to get faster and Two quickly sits on the edge of Mingyu's bed by his legs and cups Mingyu's face, lifting it up to level his gaze with him. 

"Nine. Breathe. You have to breathe." Two took Mingyu's hands in his and pulls it closer, placing his palm over his chest.

"Breathe with me, come on." Two takes a deep breath and Mingyu tries to take in a deep breath only to choke as he breathes out too quickly. Two starts breathing in and out slowly and Mingyu tries his best to follow his lead. Mingyu's breathing gets under control and Two brings down their hands and held Mingyu's in his as Ten speaks up.

 

"I ran some tests on his blood earlier, to make sure he's not ill or something. But the results..." Ten types furiously on the keyboard and hears him step away. Mingyu's gaze was still on his hand in Two's hands. He stares at the trail of blood on his arms and wouldn't have heard Six beside him if Two didn't stand up abruptly. Mingyu looks to his right and sees his profile on one screen and another profile on the other screen. Six steps towards the monitors and takes a closer look. 

 

"How is this possible?" Six asks. Ten looks confused as hell but his face lit up in realization.

"Yesterday! When he attacked Mingyu! That could be some sort of way to pass, well, whatever that is, into Mingyu. I mean, he's never attacked any of us before and all the ones he'd feed from, he'd always  drain to death. I'm not a hundred percent sure but it's a possibility." Ten says. Six turns and looks at Mingyu with an unfamiliar expression on his face. Mingyu hates it. It looks guarded, like he isn't sure what to think of Mingyu.

 

"What's going on?" Mingyu asks. Six smiles down at him softly before taking a seat beside Mingyu. Mingyu's pretty sure he has some idea on what's going on but he's not sure if he's right. He sees Ten go back to typing on his P.C. as Three moves up beside him. One and Two walks out of the room as Six held on to his left hand. 

"Don't pretend, Nine. I'm sure you understand already." Six says. Mingyu sighs and squeezes Six's hand.

"It seems like your results were identical to Chan's." Six says. Mingyu sighs and he feels his neck stings as sweat drips down his skin. He hisses and lifts his hand on his neck only for Six to stop him.

"They're... They're closing. They're all healing." Six says, eyes glued to Mingyu's neck. Six lifts his chin and moves his head to the right, then to the left. His hand then tenses and Mingyu looks down on Six's face.

"All but one." Six says. His hand dropping from Mingyu's chin down to his neck. His thumb brushes over the lone mark on the right side of his neck. Mingyu shivers, he feels his blood go cold as Six leans closer. Mingyu breathes in and he's hit with Six's overwhelming scent. Mingyu looks down and sees Six's looking up at Mingyu's eyes with something like surprise in his eyes. Mingyu blinks and in an instant, Six was under him with a pained expression and his hands pinned down by Mingyu's on either side of his head.

 

Mingyu hears Ten yelling at him and he flings himself back in an instant. He kicks back till his back hits the frame of the bed he was on and he watches on as Ten kneels besides Six and helps him sit up. Mingyu sees blood seeping through the collar of Six's button up shirt and a shiver runs up his spine as he could smell Six's blood. And it smells great.

 

He sees Six look up at Ten before looking right at Mingyu's eyes. Mingyu tenses. 

 

He hurt Six. He hurt Wonwoo. 

 

Mingyu struggles to get up, he scrambles for the glass door and slams it open. Mingyu flinched to a stop as the door shatters behind him. He looked back and saw Ten and Six looking up at him, Six's right arm around Ten's shoulder as Ten wraps an arm around Six's waist, helping him stand up.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Mingyu says before running off and heading towards his room, planning on locking himself there until they either drag him out to kill him or until they burst in his room to kill him. 

  
  
  


The second Mingyu entered his room he slams the door close behind him and punched the wall beside it, you know, to let out some frustration. But that seems to just add up to Mingyu's frustrations as his fist creates a small crater on the wall, the concrete falls on the floor in bits and pieces as dust flirts around Mingyu. Mingyu groans, took off his shirt, goes under the covers of his bed, and hides his head under his pillow. He's been lying like this for almost an hour now, only moved when he reached out over to his bedside drawer to turn off his com device when he hears Ten tell them what happened. Mingyu listens in as the rest keeps asking questions but eventually turns it off when Twelve asks where Mingyu was.

 

An hour later Mingyu groans. He hears on coming footsteps before he hears the door knob turn before his door open softly and hears the rubble dragged through the floor along with the door. The door shuts and he hears a soft and familiar chuckle. A light, airy chuckle he's heard a million times before that always made him smile proudly, knowing he'd cause it. Now it just adds weight on his already sinking heart in his chest.

 

"I gotta say, that's actually pretty impressive." Mingyu hear's Twelve's voice over the pillow on his head. Mingyu closes his eyes and stays still. He can hear him walking towards his bed and stopping just by the foot of it. 

"Nine." Mingyu buries himself deeper in his covers and hears Twelve sigh.

"God, you're so dramatic." Twelve says. 

 

Mingyu flinches as his covers were pulled back as Twelve jumps on the bed, crawling so his legs were pinning Mingyu's down and one of his hands were on Mingyu's neck. Mingyu, startled, lets his instincts kick in and grabs for Twelve's hand before flipping them over. Twelve groans as Mingyu locks his legs around Twelve's and pins his right hand on top of his head. Twelve looks up at Mingyu and Mingyu watches as Twelve smiles, pulls out a knife from his back and presses it under Mingyu's neck. Mingyu feels his skin break from the pressure and tries to grab for it on his other hand but Twelve pulls the knife down, flips it with a single flick of his wrist as he slashes at the back of Mingyu's hand. Mingyu hisses, he flinched back and Twelve uses that to free his other hand, lifting it to grab the back of Mingyu's neck with his right hand and presses the knife back up his neck. Mingyu looks down and sees Twelve smiling.

"Is this supposed to make me feel better?" Mingyu asks. Twelve brings the knife down but his right hand not moving from the back of Mingyu's head.

"It's supposed to get your head out of your ass." Twelve says. Mingyu scoffs and Twelve rolls his eyes.

"You're not doing such a great job at that." Mingyu says. Twelve gives him a pointed look and Mingyu looks away. Mingyu hears Twelve sigh. 

"You're such an idiot, you know that?" Twelve says. His hand moves up to Mingyu's hair now, fingers carding through Mingyu's long hair as Mingyu brings both of his hands on either side of Twelve's head to support his weight. 

"You don't know what's going on with you. You're panicking. You're scared. All of which are normal." Twelve says. Mingyu closes his eyes and sighs.

"We're not supposed to be normal." Mingyu says. Twelve's face contorted into a confused one and Mingyu deflates.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Twelve asks.

"Six doesn't need normal." Mingyu says. It's true. It's what makes them valuable to the team. It's what makes them qualified.

 

Twelve lets out a scoff and Mingyu's pushed back all of a sudden. Mingyu's left sitting on his ass as Twelve untangles their legs and sits cross legged in front of Mingyu. He sheaths his knife back on his back and Mingyu looks at twelve properly for the first time. Twelve was barefoot, wearing his training shorts and a large black shirt with a "09" embroidered on the collar. One of Mingyu's black training shirts. 

 

Twelve fixes himself and crawls out of Mingyu's bed in one smooth leap. He stands up, looks over at Mingyu with cold eyes, and lifts a finger to his ear, to his com.

"He's fine. He's not showing any signs that he'd attack humans. He's just plain old, dumbass Nine." Twelve says. Mingyu's used to all of them smack talking each other, but somehow this adds to the weight on his chest. 

"Eight, I'll be back in the training room in five minutes. Ten, feel free to knock on Nine's door. Six says he needs Mingyu for the interrogation later with Chan so at least try to check if he's still," Twelve give's Mingyu one last glance before he stalks out of the room, "y'know, If he's still him." Twelve says. He lets go of his com and was halfway out the door when Mingyu called him out.

"That's... That's my shirt." Mingyu says. Twelve's cold stance melts into something else. He looks confused, and a bit like he was taken off guard. Then his expression steels again and he took off Mingyu's shirt in a second before leaving it on the floor. Mingyu gawkes as Twelve leaves his room shirtless, with just his knife strap tight on his waist and a lone, wooden arrow head tied around his neck. Twelve was gone in a second and Mingyu sits in his bed with his shirt in his hand smelling like anything but him. 

  
  


Mingyu was on his way to Six's room, barefoot and dressed in his training shirt and shorts, and he can hear his heart beating hard. He'd honestly rather face a full on assault on his own against a dozen of heavily equipped men rather than to face Six now. 

 

Ten had knocked on Mingyu's door a few minutes after Twelve left and had checked on Mingyu. Ten was their resident doctor. Mingyu knows that he used to go to college and had wanted to help people in need. Mingyu can't exactly judge Ten for where he is now but Ten had smiled at him when he asked this once before.

 

"I think of it as helping, in a way. The people we deal with are just plain bad. We're not exactly innocent, yeah, but if doing questionable things is what it takes for me to help in some way then I'm all for it, y'know." Ten smiled his signature smile and Mingyu smiles back. He can't completely understand but he does know where Ten might be coming from. 

 

Mingyu stares at Six's door and he feels cold sweat ran down his back. He takes a deep breath and Twelve's scent fills his lungs. He takes a few more deep breaths and the door swung open.

 

"If you're done swallowing all the air in the hallway, feel free to come in." Chan jokes. Mingyu lets out a nervous laugh and steps in the room. Chan closes the door behind him and Mignyu stands by the piano in the middle of the room as he scans the room for Six. He hears Chan step close behind him and Mingyu tenses when Chan hugs him from behind.

 

"I'm sorry." Chan says. Mingyu laughs softly as he turns around and hugs Chan back, wrapping his arms around his shoulders.

"What are you saying sorry for?" Mingyu says. Chan buries his face on Mingyu's chest. 

"I didn't mean to... I didn't know I could..." Chan says. Mingyu can hear that he's close to tears and lifts one hand to pat Chan's head softly. 

"Dude, you gave me super healing powers! I should be thanking you!" Mingyu says. Chan chuckles at that and  looks up at Mingyu. Mingyu smiles down at him and hears the bathroom door swing open.

"Nine." Mingyu tenses in Chan's arms and whips his head over at the direction of Six's voice. 

 

"Six." Mingyu says. Mingyu pulls Chan off and faces Six. He bows with his full body and takes a deep breath.

"I want to apologize for my actions earlier. I didn't- I don't know what happened but I take full responsibility for my actions. I'll accept any punishment you see fit for me. I will never do-" "Stop." Six cut him off with a word and Mingyu tenses. He stays like that, half his body bowed down with his hands pressed to his sides. Six may be kind, and affectionate to them, unlike the image he puts up for public, but he's also strict. He's ruthless if he needs to be and he could be cruel if he wants to be. Mingyu has always been on his good side and it's unnerving to suddenly be on his bad side.

 

"Apology accepted. But punishment is unnecessary." Six's says. Mingyu can feel the sweat dripping from his forehead down to his nose and watches as it drops to the floor. He swallows and waits as Six steps forward. Six's hand was suddenly on the side of his face, his finger trailing down Mingyu's jaw till it was down on his chin before lifting Mingyu's face up. Mingyu stands up straight and stares at Six's neck. Six was still in his bathrobe with his hair wet and plastered on his head and Mingyu can see the familiar sight of gauze on the side of Six's neck. Six's finger left Mingyu's chin and he brings a hand up to his neck, over the gauze.

"I have a theory. And I need your help with it. Will you help me, Nine?" Mingyu feels his throat dry before he nods. Then he catches himself and says a shakey yes. Six then pulls down his bathrobe a bit to expose his shoulders and swiftly rips off the gauze on his neck. Mingyu gasps as three gashes run down the left side of Six's neck to his collarbone. Six sits on the stool in front of the piano and looks up at Mingyu.

"Chan didn't know it at first but he once healed me by accident. It was the time I got ambushed on the way home when you guys were away. Chan had licked my wounds in cat form and they instantly closed up." Six explains. Mingyu remembers that.

 

They were all out and Chan was still new to their team so he wasn't allowed out yet. Three and Chan were left at home while Six had to take care of business in town. Mingyu were with half of them in their weekly run around town when they received a distress call from Six. He was with Two at that time and he managed to hold them back till the rest came by. That night, Two filled everyone in on what happened and everyone had collectively agreed to pay a certain group a little visit. They went home to reload and to change before heading out. All of them save for Six, Ten, and Chan. Ten had ordered Two to stay back but he announced that he was leading the team tonight and One and Ten can't stop him. Ten had asked Mingyu to shoot one in the eye for him and Mingyu gave him a smile. 

 

Needless to say, that night was the last time any rival group had tried to hurt Six. Words spread like wildfire and by breakfast the next morning, Three and Seven had announced that they've gained at least five alliance notice from different territories and Mingyu smiles proudly when he tells Ten he shot at least a dozen guys in the balls for him. 

That was also the first day Mingyu had seen Two out in the field and he promised to himself never to piss him off when he saw Two punch the guy who hit Six so hard his neck snapped. 

 

Mingyu was brought back when he feels Six's hand in his, pulling him close.

"Nine. I trust you. All of you." Six says. Mingyu nods and swipes his tongue on his thumb and then gently brushes it over one of the gashes. Mingyu watches, he can feel Chan watching from behind him, but they both sigh after half a minute had already passed and Six's wound was still not closing. Mingyu looks down at Six and Six smiles sadly.

"Don't. It's okay." Six says. Mingyu takes a step back and Chan goes towards Six and leans in closer to his neck. Mingyu averted his eyes as Six groans and waits a minute before looking back up. He sees Chan smiling up at Mingyu from where he's seated beside Six. Six fixes his robe and stands up. 

"I heard your conversation with Twelve, we all did." Six said. Mingyu tenses, and then he can feel himself flushing from the neck up.

"I guess it is one of my shortcomings. I put too much expectations from you all which might lead you to think I'd need you to be more than something you're not." Six says. Mingyu steps forward and was about to ask Six not to blame himself, but Six lifts a hand in front on Mingyu and Mingyu swallows his words.

"I do not need you to be anything but your true self Nine. I took you in because you showed me a truth i was looking for, not because i was expecting anything from you. From any of you." Six says his last sentence with a certain emphasis and Mingyu realizes why.

"I know most of you are listening in." Six says in his com.

"Maybe this will serve as a refresher. Think of the day we met. The day you gave me your truth. And remember that i just need you to be the real you." Six says. Mingyu hears a chorus of "yes, Six." in his com and  Six smiles.

 

Six turns his com off and signals Mingyu to do the same. 

"Nine, I care about you." Six says. Mignyu feels himself flush and Six smiles.

"I care about all of you. But I feel like you might misinterpret my affection towards you, somehow." Mingyu feels shame washed over his body and he averts his eyes, looking down instead of looking at Six's eyes.

"I may show a slight favoritism for you and Chan but that's not the same as what you feel for him." Six says. Mingyu looks up at Six, confused, as Six smiles. 

"Him? What? Which him?" Mingyu asks. Six shakes his head and turns his back on as he pulls Mingyu to the door. 

"Change into gear. I'm gonna need you for when I interrogate the guy you and Twelve brought in." Mingyu nods. Six says his goodbye and Mingyu hears Chan yell his goodbye before Six's closes the door on Mingyu's face.

  
  


Mingyu realizes he hasn't met with anyone else but Six, Chan, Ten, and Twelve since earlier this morning and lunch was, well, eventful.

One, Two, and Three watches as Five and Seven asks to stab Mingyu, both of them holding a knife as they approach Mingyu, as Ten and Eight scolds them. Eleven and Twelve were talking about something with Four while they look over Seven's laptop. Mingyu glances over at them at the same time Twelve's eyes lifts from the screen and passes over him. Mingyu tenses and Twelve brings his eye back on the screen in an instant, speaking to Four as he types something on Seven's laptop. They all settled down when Six comes in the room with Chan in tow. Six reprimands Five and Seven and Mingyu sighs as Six makes them sit in any order for the briefing.

 

"The note Nine and Twelve got yesterday was an address, thanks to them we got somewhat of a lead. Seven had mapped it out and we'll monitor it for two days before moving in. Four had managed to scope it out earlier and he'll assist Seven with the mapping along with Three and Two. Eight, Nine, and Ten will help me and Chan with the interrogation later and the rest can go about your day as usual." Six says. Everyone nodded and lunch went on as usual.

 

Mingyu ate his food as fast as he could and went to his room to change. Their usual interrogation clothes are just plain black button up shirts and black slacks. Two had suggested to pair it with black leather shoes but Six and One agreed on plain black sneakers. It's much more useful for when they have to chase down a runner. It took Mingyu a few minutes to change and he goes down the cell blocks by the garage and sees Ten inside one of the cells cleaning the man's wound. Mingyu sees the man he and Twelve brought back from the other day, or was it yesterday? Regardless, Fatso was getting his wounds cleaned and taken care of while he was unconscious on his metal bed. Mingyu looks on the other side and sees the cell of the scientist empty. Eight comes in just in time and Mingyu pulls him aside.

 

"Hey, what happened to the guy we got from the other day? The scientist." Mingyu asks. Eight fixes his sleeves that Mingyu had pulled him from and grunts.

"Six took care of him. Don't worry about it." Eight says. Ten then calls out for the two of them and Mingyu and Eight carries the man, wrapping an arm around their shoulders as they dragged him up the stairs. Ten opens the door and Mingyu and Eight sets him down on the middle of the room, kneeling him and then tying his arms and legs together. The room was a complete blank save for the lone chair in the middle of the room and two small cabinets besides one of the other two doors. 

 

Mingyu watches as Ten tightens the knot and stands up.

"You are awfully good at that, Ten. You should teach me that sometimes." Mingyu teases. Eight hits the back of his head with his the back of his hand and Ten laughs.

"That's a reminder of the dislocated shoulder Five gave you the last time you hit on Ten." Eight says. Ten's grins smugly and Mignyu groans as he rubs the back of his head. 

"Besides, you're just as possessive as him, so you should really watch yourself." Eigth says as they stand around the man. Before Mingyu could ask what he meant, Six comes in wearing his special purple suit and smiles at them. Six takes a seat on the only chair in the room and crossed his legs. He asks Ten to wake him up and asks them to wait in the other room while Mingyu stays in the room. Mingyu smiles at the two and gives them a shit eating grin as they leave the room. Eight rolls his eyes and Ten just makes his way to the other room. 

 

Mingyu stays with his back pressed on the wall as Fatso's head lolls arounds before groaning aloud. Mingyu watches as Six places his hands on his lap and looks down on Fatso with a distasteful look on his face.

 

"So." Fatso says. Mingyu watches from the side as Fatso smiles at Six from where he's kneeling on the ground and Mingyu wants to punch his face again.

"You've got to be the one pulling the strings, then." Fatso says. Six smiles and nods.

"Yeah, you could say that." Six says, a playful smile on his face. Fatso had the nerve to scoff and Mingyu does his best not to deck him hard enough to sleep through the entire week.

"I'll give you a little demo, then." Six says. Mingyu's eyes went up to six on the other end of the room and Mingyu smiles when Six nods.

"I think our little guess here needs a trim, don't you?" Six says. Mingyu grins. 

Fatso turns to Mingyu and Mingyu had already taken his pistol out of his holster, leveling it and aiming for a couple of seconds before pulling the trigger. The bullet grazes the top of Fatso's left hear, a chunk of his hair falling singed on the floor as he stares at Mingyu.

"Is that enough for you? I'm sure he'll be glad to entertain the both of us by doing what i tell him to." Mingyu's sure Six didn't mean it in any sexual way but Mingyu has a talent for making anything six says as close to anything sexual as possible. 

"What are you looking for?" Fatso spits out. He glares at Six as he asks and Mingyu wanted nothing but to show him how to use his manners. 

"I think the real question here is what are you trying to keep from us." Six says. His voice leveled and his posture shows how he'd rather be anywhere at all but here. Two had explained how Six does this everytime to make them think he's not interested in whatever they were saying and it'll end up in them spilling more than they think they do. Mingyu honestly does not get it but it's worked for years now so he doesn't question it.

"Look, we were paid to keep the guy from talking." He must mean Tonic. 

"And when your goons came up with an arsenal under their coats, well, even we aren't stupid enough to ignore that." Fatso says in a sarcastic voice and Mingyu  _ really _ wants to remind him which of them is tied up and still bleeding on the floor.

"You seem stupid enough to think you can handle them." Six fires back. Mingyu grins as Fatso's glare deepen on Six. 

"Who was paying you?" Six asks. Fatso smiles and Mingyu rolls his eyes.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Fatso says. Teasing like he thinks he has the right to. 

 

And just then, Mingyu picks it up. 

 

Six sighs, taps his foot three times, and leans back in his chair. 

 

Mingyu forces a smile down as he tries to get in character. He cocks his gun once and shoots Fatso on the thigh, aiming just right so the bullet would go through flesh and out in one clean sweep. Six calls out to him but he went on and cocks his gun again. This time he's walked up close enough to lift the mouth of the gun on Fatso's fore head,making him hiss as the mouth burns his skin. 

"Tell us who you're working for." Mingyu demands. He can hear Six's footsteps behind him and almost smiles.

"What the fuck is wrong with you."Fatso screams and Six calls out to him again. Mingyu gives Fatso one last convincing glare before pulling the trigger. 

 

Six managed to pull Mingyu's hand up over Fatso's head Right as the bullet flies out and he twists Mingyu's wrist, making him yelp in pain as the gun clacks to the floor. Six then pulls Mingyu by his wrist, pulling it behind him as he punches Mingyu in the gut with his other hand. Mingyu mewls in pain, his chin almost touching Six's shoulder as Six's hand moves to his waist.

This was not what they practiced.

Six then gave Mingyu a quick smile as his right hand lets go of Mingyu's wrist and Mingyu was about to smile back when he sees Six's right hand coming for his throat the same time Six's right leg kicks Mingyu's legs forward. Mingyu was slammed down hard on the floor and he croaks as Six tightens his grip on his neck. Six leans down close to his face and Mingyu stares as Six pinned him down. 

"You only  _ speak _ when I tell you to and you only  _ move _ when I tell you to. You don't think by yourself and you don't act by yourself. Have I made myself clear?" Mingyu stares. He knows he's really fucked up in the brain because he's really turned on by all of this. Six then grips his neck harder and Mingyu actually chokes. His hands move up to Wonwoo's wrist and he tries to speak but all that comes out of his mouth are him gasping and muttering broken syllables at best. So he nods. He nods his head so fast he's not sure if he's getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen in his body or how fast he did it. 

 

Six lets go of Mingyu and Mingyu made a show of scrambling away from Six and coughing out loud. He glances up towards the two and it seems like the plan worked. Fatso was looking at Mingyu with a dumbstruck face on and Six gives him a barely visible nod as he calls up Ten in his com, making a show out of it by pressing a finger by his ear just so Fatso can keep up.

"Medic. I need one right now. Gunshot on his thigh." Six gave Mingyu one last degrading scowl before heading back to his chair. He orders Mingyu to get up and Mingyu scurries up, grabbing his gun and holding it with his right hand instead. Fatso noticed and Mingyu almost smiled. That'll make him think Six actually did his wrist some damage. Mingyu tries his best to act like he's in pain but trying to mask it with a neutral face and it's all going up to Fatso's head. He kept giving Six unsure glances and flinches when Ten emerges from the door behind Mingyu. Mingyu watches as Ten checks on the wound and does his best to act like he's doing first aid.

 

"If I'm wasting my time on you I'm just gonna lock you back in your cell and leave you there until one of two things happen. One, would be to make you wait until we find another lead and that's when you'll be of no value to me and then I'll kill you. And two would be making you rot there until you either break or die." Six explains and Mingyu notices the slight change of demeanour on Fatso. He was regarding Six in a different light now, with more respect and with more attention. 

 

Nothing demands respect more than pure brute force.

 

"Sande Raviel U.S." Mingyu almost smiles as Fatso lowers his head. 

"We never met him. Or her. We just get money from a wire transfer and when I asked one of my men to track back on the account, they found him dead the next morning. They said it could be some tag killer because of the marks on his body but we knew it wasn't. We got a message to stop trying to look for them and they doubled our pay the following week." Fatso explained. 

 

Mingyu chanced a quick glance to Ten and sees him with his head lowered, pressing down on the hole on Fatso's leg. Mingyu then looks over at Six and sees him thinking hard. He then masks his face with a neutral look and stares right into Fatso's face.

 

"How did you get in contact with a person who doesn't want to be found?" Six asks. Fatso chuckles and shakes his head.

"You don't." Fatso says. "They find you." Fatso level's Six's stare for a solid minute before Six breaks into a smile.

 

That seem to have caught Fatso by surprise. Mingyu smirks as Ten stands up and moves to stand next to Mingyu. 

"You see, Joonhyuk. That's literally the only thing we didn't know about you." Six takes something from inside his coat and the glint of the bell catches Fatso's attention as Six rings it twice.

"We know you're not from around here, we know you're not married, we know about your trust funds, the two woman you're with, your whole profile just screams who you are. But we just can't find anything about your employer." Six says. Mingyu hears the door behind Six open and a second later Chan emerges on top of the backrest of Six's chair. Carefully balancing himself as he stands there with nothing but a huge black button up shirt on and what looks like just a pair of black shorts. He has a red ribbon tied around his neck, the bow standing out on the side of Chan's neck as he smiles down at them. 

 

Six lifts his right hand up and Chan takes it. Chan then smoothly moves down and steps on to the armrest on the right of Six's chair before he bends forward and settles himself down on Six's lap. Fatso stares wide eyed at Six and Six just toys with the ribbon on Chan's neck as he continues speaking. 

"But you still attacked two of my people." Chan looks up at Six and Six nods. 

Chan swings his legs out of Six's chair and stares at the man with a smile on his face.

"Let me tell you about a little something about local myths." Six says. Chan's brown hair starts turning into white from the roots down as his ears folds into the side of his head and white pointed ears pull up from his hair.

"We have this thing, some people call it a vampire, a demon, a shapeshifter. But the locals call it something flashy. It was kind of funny at first. But its starting to grow on us." Chan moves towards the man step by step. Mingyu can see his shirt move around his back and a second later he sees Chan's tail swaying left to right just over his shoulders. 

"They call it the White Fang." Chan's eyes have turned from its deep dark brown to a bright electric blue. 

"It's called white fang for obvious reasons." Six says, Chan bares his fangs and Fatso just stares. Chan leans down, grabs Fatso with one hand around his neck, and lifts him up. Fatso chokes as Chan lifts him above his height and Chan just smiles. He then hears Six ring the bell again and Mignyu and Ten sees Chan slam the man down by his neck, much like what Six did to him earlier, before they turn around completely and lets Chan do his thing. 

 

No matter how many times they do this, Mingyu still can't stand the noise they make when Chan bites their neck. The wet, sort of drowning sound they make as they try to pull Chan away from their necks. But Mingyu shivvers and lets himself think of other things as Chan finishes on his meal.

 

"Seven, Four, Eleven, and Twelve. See what you can get about a Sande Raviel U.S. Anything about dealings, business interactions, all of it. I want their whole foot print mapped as soon as possible." Mingyu hears Six in his ear. He hears all four of them confirm Six's request and Mingyu stretches his neck and shoulders while they wait for Chan to finish.

"You okay?" Ten asks. Ten then moved behind him and starts pressing and pushing and kneading his muscles and Mingyu sighs when he can finally feel his back again. 

"Was I too rough?" Six startles Mingyu when he spoke up form his other side. He regains his composure and smiles over his shoulder at Six.

"You can always be rough with me- OW! _Ten_!" Ten lets go of Mingyu's arm that he had just pulled back and probably sprained something. Six chuckles at Mingyu's comment. Like he always does. But Ten and Mingyu both froze up when Six snakes his arm around Mingyu's waist and pulls him flush on his chest, His mouth was just over Mingyu's ear as he spoke.

"If you don't stop your incessant flirting, I might take you seriously Nine." Six says and Mingyu can hear a collective gasping happening in his com.

 

And that's exactly when Chan decided that he was finished. Six's arm was off of his in a second as Chan and Six go out of the room together. Eight comes back in the room, looking just as spooked as Mignyu feels and he turns to look at Ten.

"I know getting a boner from Six is your thing but that was fucking _hot_." Ten says. Then he turns a deep shade of pink when they hear Six say a cocky " _ Thanks _ " in their coms. Mingyu feels his knees going weak and ushers Eight and Ten to help him get rid of the body quick so he cant get to his bathroom. 

To take a bath. To take a very long and very  _ cold _ bath.

  
  


 

It was well into the night when Mingyu came down for dinner. He's all showered up and he's wearing comfortable clothes for once. He makes his way down the dining room and sees that the only ones there are Ten, Six, Eight, and Five. All four of them eating on the dining table as Two emerges from the kitchen with a bowl of what looks like pasta in his hands.

"Where are the others?" Mingyu asks. Ten points his fork towards their common room and Mingyu can already see the projector on and almost all of them talking all at once.

"Are we really gonna let them do their research like this. Literally everyone in there wouldn't listen to another." Eight comments and Mingyu has to admit, all the level headed ones are sitting around this table right now. The closest they have to being level headed is Three and he's gonna need Two to pull in the reigns of everyone in there.

"Seven and Twelve can handle them. For now let them do their work and we'll do what we can. Which is resting." Six seems to have pointed that last part towards Mingyu and he shrugs innocently. 

"I'm fine." Mingyu says and he's faced with four blank stares as Five snorts.

"You haven't gone a day without fainting for the past three days, Nine. Do everyone a favor and rest." Five says. Which sucks because Mingyu wanted to ask him for a late night sparring session after dinner.

"But I don't wanna sleep alone." Mingyu whines. Two rolls his eyes and went back to the kitchen, Eight rolls his eyes before going back to whatever he was doing with his phone, and Ten rolls his eyes before going back to eating. 

 

And they still wonder why Six is the only person he respects in this household.

"Nine." Oh no. it's the firm voice. Six gave him a pointed but soft look and Mingyu sighs, defeatedly.

"Fine. But I won't be sleeping well. And that's on your conscience." Mingyu says as he flops down on a chair and makes himself a plate.

"Why don't you tell your usual cuddle buddy. I'm sure he'll keep you company." Mingyu scoffs at that. Twelve is on his hit list right. around the top five.

"No. He's an  _ ass _ ." Mingyu spits.

"And you're a  _ dick _ . Youre perfect for each other." Eight adds and Mingyu glares at Eight as hard as he can before Six sighs and tells them all to behave.

"That means you, too, Nine. Finish eating and go take a well deserved rest." Six says, standing up. Mingyu looks at him, betrayed.

"Are you sending me to my room after dinner?" Six looks back at him, looks up at the ceiling for a second like he was thinking, and smiles.

"Yeah. I guess i am. If you don't, then I'll be forced to ground you." Six teases and Ten, Eight, and Five snickers. Mingyu grumpily finishes his food, the other three finishing up and probably going to their training room. When he finishes, though, he sees Two bringing a huge pot of food through the kitchen door and Mingyu sees him taking it to the common room. So Mingyu opens the door for him and went back to get them plates and utensils as Jeonghan sets their food.

Mingyu walks in and stares at the projector. A bunch of windows were open and Mingyu can see the ongoing search for the name. A bunch of articles about a bunch of females in a tribe, some pop culture reference, bible verses, but no specific person. Mingyu sets the plates in the empty spot on the table that's not overrun by paper and he stares at the name.

 

Sande Raviel U.S.

 

Mingyu squints at bit and he tilts his head as he stares. He can hear Eleven talking to them about the local governing agencies in their area talking about the inhumane biological research done in the past. Twelve and One keep talking about people with almost the same name but never the exact one. Two tells them all to eat while they brainstorm and Three was in the middle of telling Two off when he realizes what he's doing and apologized as he takes a plate from in front of Mingyu.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Seven asks from the seat next to where Mingyu was standing. He sees him typing fast on his laptop with at least five windows open and Mingyu gawkes before he answers.

"Hey, remember when we were trying to make fake names out of our numbers?" Mingyu asks. Seven gives him a pretty judgemental look before nodding and going back to staring at his screen.

"You're not about to start calling me Neevs, are you. If so, you are welcome to leave." Seven says and Mingyu huffs.

"No. And your name was  _ Sveen _ . Sounds a bit german if you ask me. But that's not the point." Mingyu says. 

"What do you call those. You had a word for those." 

"Anagrams?"

"Yes! What if Sande Raviel U.S. is an anagram for something?"

"It's not, Nine. We've figured out what both words mean." Seven types something on his laptop and then sends it to the screen.

"Sande is a secret society for women in some countries that has some sort of initiation for young woman going into their adulthood. And they have a ritual for genital mutilation. And the closest thing we got for raviel is Raziel. The archangel Raziel. But Raziel is known as The Secret of God. And then we found these article about a group of women calling themselves feathers of secrets, who experiments with their unborn children and sort of like mutates them to  _ enhance _ them." Seven finishes his recap. The whole room seems to be listening in and Seven looks up to Mingyu.

"I'm sorry but my mind blocked anything after you said genital mutilation." Seven rolls his eyes at him and grabs a plate.

"All I'm saying is there's a reason for their name. I just know there is. But I feel like its layers and layers of-" Seven stops talking. Everyone's looking at him but he just stops and stares at the screen.

 

Then all of a sudden he made a small  _ Ah!  _ sound as he grabs a piece of paper in front of him and scrambles for a pen and started scribbling down a bunch of names over and over again. Mingyu takes a peak and he keeps seeing variations of names until Seven shouts for joy. He then sat back down and starts typing on his laptop, closing all the existing windows and popping up three windows. One window was an old sketch of a round faced man with a beard, the second window was a picture of an old book, and the last was a window with barely visible text.

"Andreas Vesalius." Seven says and everyone waits for some sort of context.

"Can we skip the part where you pause and expect us to  _ know  _ what your point is." Mingyu says and Seven gave him a pointed look.

"He's real name is Andreis van Wesel. He's known to be the father of modern human anatomy." Seven explains.

" _ Founder _ of modern human anatomy." Ten says from the doorway. Mingyu didn't even notice him there. Seven pulls Ten in and nudges him to go on.

"Well, Not much to tell, really. He was told to be the first one who dissected a specimen for research purposes and he made a book," He points at the second picture, "that book.  _ De humani corporis fabrica _ ." Ten explains. Seven types it out and then translates it.

"On the fabric of the Human Body." Seven reads.

"So we're looking for someone with extensive knowledge in biology. Haven't we already established that literally the night we raided that lab?" One adds in and Seven picks up his laptop, balances it on one arm as he types with the other. Mingyu smiles to himself when Seven pushes his glasses up his nose before resuming his typing. The three windows shrinks to fit on top of each other onto the left side of the screen as four new windows opens up. The Sandes, the ones with the genetal mutilation. Which is gross. One is the angel Seven mentioned. Or rather archangel. Mingyu thinks there's a difference there. The other is Andreas again, founder of anatomy, opened up a body, which is equally gross. The fourth one was just a picture of a weird dissected animal. Which makes all of them put down their plates of spaghetti at the same time and Seven looks around apologetically. Cute.

 

"Look. Can't you see their connections?" Seven asks exasperatedly and everyone just waits and stares. Seven sighs and starts to explain.

"Okay. The Sandes are looked down upon by other tribes and like other communities by their weird passage to adulthood ritual. But scientifically speaking, it's their way, let's say, adapting. It's supposed to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment. And Andreas was  _ shunned _ ," Mingyu can't help but smile at how Seven emphasized the word shunned, "for  _ mutilating _ a body for scientific purposes. He was thought to be disrespectful and completely crazy at that time but look at science now." Seven seems to be bursting with every word he says.

"But if this is all about science then why is the archangel part of the equation." Ten asks and Seven smiles wider.

"That's exactly  _ why _ he's in the equation! Okay. Look, Raziel is the closest angel to God, right? They say he hears everything he says and he writes them all in this book of truth he has that gets lost or passed on, I don't recall. But he's known to know about all the secrets of the universe. He's the patron of wisdom. And there's this belief that every thought that was born in the spiritual realm always end up as creative energy. People who thinks they dreamt up of solutions or inventions in their dreams or people on the brink of death and then coming back to life with different thoughts, stuff like that. He's the religious explanation for that." Seven finishes his dialogue, looking expectantly at all of them but no one's budging so Mingyu takes on for the team.

Or, takes one for Seven.

"So what you're saying is that we're looking for a scientist with a religious background?" Mingyu offers and Seven's eyes lights up. Or maybe it's just the projector reflection from his glasses. He smiles at Mingyu and he nods.

"Exactly! They'll be easier to pinpoint now that we have this information! I mean, how many in the field of science do you think would have a religious background?" Seven asks. Mingyu nods. He does have a point. 

"Nice work Seven." Six says from the doorway and Mingyu almost jumps. Seven smiles up at him but glances at Mingyu.

"Actually it's Nine. He gave me the idea that the name was an anagram." Seven explains. Mingyu smiles at Seven, winks at him before turning to Six with a massive grin on his face. He waits for a praise but Six just stares at him.

"Nine has had far too much compliments for one day. Everyone wrap this up and rest up. We'll have a long day tomorrow, it seems." Almost everyone laughs at Mingyu and he helps Two and Three to clean up the plates while everyone stacks all the research properly. He helps Two in the kitchen and then when he was setting down the plates on the sink, he sees a clean plate on top of the stack. He then asks Two if there were left overs from earlier and he sends Mingyu to their fridge. Luckily there's still a bowl of fried rice there so he heats it up while Jeonghan washes the dishes and barely catches up to Seven when he walks out of the common room with his laptop. 

"Hey. You haven't eaten anything yet." Seven stares at the bowl and looks up at Mingyu.

"I'm heading to bed." Seven says, like Mingyu's stupid. But Mingyu smiles.

"I know. Doesn't mean you'll be sleeping." Mingyu says. Seven's eyes widened, shocked from getting caught as if there was anyone in that room that actually thought Seven would be able to sleep the night if he hasn't cracked this yet. 

"I'll keep it a secret, don't worry. And use the coffee maker in the kitchen. No one will hear you." Mingyu says. Then he leaves Seven there and walks up to his room. 

 

He's not entirely sure what's up with this sudden Seven attraction but he doesn't mind. The elder had always been cute but he always snaps at Mingyu for absolutely no reason. Mingyu wonders what Seven would be like if he wasn't in this life. If he would still be a computer geek. Or maybe he'd be an engineer. Mingyu laughs at the thought of Seven bent over the open hood of a car. On his tiptoes. Mingyu laughs into his pillow and closes his eyes. He was about to fall asleep when he hears the gurgle of the coffee machine in the kitchen under his room. He pays it no mind and just sleeps at the thought of Seven and his laptop sitting on the counter, waiting for the coffee to finish.

  
  
  
  


Mingyu sits up abruptly on his bed and was startled by someone on his bed. His first instinct was to reach for the gun under his pillow and to reach for his com on his bedside table to warn everyone of an intruder. But he turns and sees Chan rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He heaves out a relieved sigh and thecks the time on his phone. It's a little past three in the morning.

 

He lies back down and watches from his peripheral vision as Chan turns into a cat and snuggles his head under Mingyu's chin. Mingyu's not sure if the younger is just teasing him or if he's just really out of it, but Mingyu lifts him up gently and places him on his lap. Mingyu scoots back and rests his back on the wall behind him as he runs his hand over Chan's fur. 

 

He tries to remember his dream. He knows he's dreaming. That's why he startled himself awake. He closes his eyes again and tries not to think hard about it. One thing he knows about dreams is that it's like water. The harder you try to grasp into it, the quicker it drips through your fingers.

 

Mingyu remembers a field. Or an ocean. He's not sure. But it's vast and he can see the horizon wherever he turns. He's not sure if the sky was dark or if it was full of stars, but he remembers a star falling down to the surface of the water. Water? So Mingyu was in the ocean. Or rather on it? But he sees the star float over the surface. almost like it's gliding. It circles Mingyu a couple of times and then it floats right in between his feet. He doesn't remember seeing his face. But he remembers seeing someone looking back at him. Then the star distracts him again and floats right in front of his eyes. When he blinks away the white spots dancing around his eyes he sees people. He sees them around him with their backs turned to him. He turns around and tries to count them but when he was about to count to eleven everyone disappears. Everyone but two of them. They look the same like this. One was standing to his left and the other to his right. They were a few feet away from him, with their backs still turned. But everytime Mingyu turns to look at one and goes back to look at the other, they get closer. They weren't taking steps back. Mingyu's sure they aren't. Mingyu feels like blaming the star but the star wasn't here anymore. When the two of them were a step away from Mingyu he looks straight ahead. His dream mind figured that if he doesn't look, then they won't get closer. Which was a great logic. But they were already too close. He can see them at the edge of his eyes. Being this close he can say that one is taller and one has a lighter shade of hair. Both were still wearing white shirts that moves like there's wind but Mingyu doesn't feel wind. He tries to lift his hand but he belatedly realizes that one of them was holding his hand. The  one on his right. He tries to use his other hand to pry his hand off but the guy on his left now has his hand in his, as well. Mingyu panics. He can't turn to look at one of them, he's not sure what will happen if there's no more space to back up to closer to him. So he closes his eyes. Which turns out to be a bad idea when he feels a hand grip his throat and he feels them throw him down on the ground which has him gasping up for air.

 

Mingyu flinches at the memory and shakes his head. He continues rubbing his hand down Chan's fur as he stares out his window. He looks up and the sky was a deep black. He puts Chan down on his bed, settles him around four pillows just to give him at least thirty minutes of fake Mingyu heat and scent as Mingyu changed into training gear and heads downstairs.

 

Their training room was almost never empty. The most common resident being Five, Eight, and surprisingly, Two. But right now, Mingyu has the whole place to himself. 

 

Their training room is basically a typical gym. But along with the dumbells are nunchucks and tonfas, next to the bench press is a five inch mat Eight specifically asked for when he teaches them close combat with Five, and in front of their threadmills is a whole wall of gloves, brass knuckles, different kinds of blades, and different kinds of bo staffs. Mingyu loves their training room almost a much as he loves the archery room. But the archery room is more like a classroom where he's the professor. But here? Here he can show off.

 

Mingyu takes one of the shorter bo staffs and drags a sandbag from the corner of the room to the middle. He stretches first, extensively. Five had always told them to stretch as much as you could. Mingyu had seen just how flexible five can be in their earlier days and Mingyu thinks stretching is good for various reasons. But mainly it's good for your health. Sure. 

 

Afterwards Mingyu just went with it. He's not as technical as Eight when it comes to fighting, yeah. But Mingyu has his own basics he called, hit them first before they hit you technique and it had never failed him ever. He starts swinging the staff, building momentum. Eight has said that the moment you lose momentum, you lose your whole rhythm. Five inputs that as long as you don't stop moving, you're building momentum. But if you have no choice but to stop, then bank on your whole weight and make the stop worth it. Five then demonstrates by showing him how he punches a sandbag right on. Then he asks Mingyu to spar with and they go at it for a couple of minutes before Soonyoung throws a punch right next to Mingyu and it swings the sandbag significantly more than earlier. But it's the same form and the same punch. So Mingyu has to practice that. 

 

But the thing is Mingyu doesn't like momentum. Yeah, he can probably hit a falling target while seated on a car a few meters away and he'd hit bullseye. The momentum, friction, wind direction. All of than Mingyu can analyze in a snap. But that requires him to stay as still and firm as he could. The only time he has to fight close range is for raids and he usually uses his bow.

So Mingyu's not good at everything. Big whoop. He's not hung up about it. And it's not like Three hit a sore spot when he buys him a bow that can literally turn into the only thing he has issues with. Totally.

 

"If you glare any longer that sandbag's gonna start crying." Mingyu hears from behind. He swings the staff towards his back and just to shove it in Mingyu's face that he's shit at this, Twelve stops his arm by pushing his palm on the back of his hand while pushing his other palm on the inside of his elbow. Making Mingyu hit his other arm with the force of his swing. Twelve looks satisfied with the eventual bruise on Mingyu's arm and he walks past him towards gloves.

"These came in yesterday." Twelve says. All chummy chummy like he didn't just assault Mingyu.

"Stop pouting." Twelve fits on a gauntlet in his arm and pulls out what looks like a gauntlet, but for their legs. It's like an armor for their shin up to their knees.

"Are they padded?" Mingyu asks and Twelve give him a look that says _Of fucking course they're padded_. Mingyu rolls his eyes and sees that there's a dozen pair at the rack. Meaning each is a custom fit for each of them. Mingyu looks for the one marked Nine and he fits in ono of the gauntlet and the leg armour. They're a snug fit. Which scarily accurate.

"I can totally use this for better landings." Mingyu sasy and Twelve snorts.

"You need dance class to sort out your two left feet, not those." Twelve says and Mignyu glares.

"Oh wait, dude. We're totally decked out like Wonder Woman." Twelve those Wonder Woman's signature move of clanking his two gauntlets together and Mingyu laughs because even their leg armour looks like Wonder Woman's boots.

"Eight and I have been using them yesterday and they're great for hand to hand." Twelve says. 

 

Mingyu studies them carefully and the gauntlet goes up to the first fold of their fingers which is great for punching. Mingyu tries for a shooting position and they don't interrupt much. Honestly, he feels like he can excuse himself to wearing sleeveless shirts with these on. 

"Al right, Legolas, check this." Twelve bends his wrist back and then folds it forward in a snap, releasing a small blade coming out on top of his knuckles. 

"Where does Three get these?" Mingyua asks and he tries the same and lo and behold, a blade that's an inch long comes out of the gauntlet. 

"Seven designs them and Three knows a guy." Twelve says. He's putting on both of the shin guards and Mingyu laughs.

"Knows a guy that make custom cut gauntlets and retractable bows?" Mingyu asks and Twelve smiles at him, his body till lowered as he pulls the shin guards down.

"And snake swords that are also really cool belt." Twelve addas and Mingyu smiles.

"Yeah. Sure. That too." Mingyu adds. Twelve laughs at him as he moves up to the sand bag Mingyu put up.

"Mingyu, you know a guy who sells exploding arrows, and smoke bomb arrows, and grappling hook arrows-"

"And stun gun arrows." Mingyu adds and Twelve gave him a pointed look.

"And stun gun arrows. See? Also, you haven't sued those for a while now." Mingyu smiles.

"Last time I used those bastards it zapped my balls when it grazed my shorts. Never again." Mingyu says and Twelve laughs.

"Not into cock and balls torture; noted." Twelve says. Mingyu stares at Twelve and he winks before he starts attacking the sandbag.

 

And just like that, they're good.

 

They're okay.

 

Mingyu feels like an entire whale was lifted out of his shoulders as he finishes putting on the shin guards. Mingyu smiles when Twelve hits the sand bag and glances at Mingyu with a smile on his face as well.

 

"Wanna play Favors?" Mingyu asks. They haven't played Favors in a while and Mingyu's not gonna admit that he could've avoided that if he wasn't such an ass. 

 

Twelve looks at him, his look translate to him weighing in the pros and cons and honestly, Mingyu's not sure why he has to. He's always won. And when Mingyu did win the favors are always, well, favoring Twelve. 

 

Well, there was that last time...

 

"Sure. I already have something in mind." And that's just not fair. Now Mingyu kind of want to lose. 

 

Favor is a, well, let's call it a _grown up_ game to simplify things. It started out with pranks really. Nothing harmless. Or, well, nothing harmless for them. It starts with asking the other to go about half naked in the middle of December, or forcing the other not to talk to someone in the house (Five was completely furious when Mingyu had to pretend he didn't exist while they're both in the training room), but the last one was hiding Seven's laptop. Seven was livid. Mingyu was sure he was so close to shoving his hand down Twelve's throat and tipping out his heart in one clean sweep. 

 

The pranks ended there and Twelve eventually turned the favors a bit, racey. The very first one was making Mingyu wear a cockring throughout the day, which Mingyu thought was easy. It wasn't. It was okay at first, but when Twelve kept asking about it Mingyu kept getting a bit turned on, and, well, it's a cockring, so it did its job. Mingyu had to fake an injury to be excused for dinner and Twelve went up to his room that night to bring him food. But they ended up disregarding the food since Mingyu's mouth was busy with Twelve's. 

 

After that they became less and less of a prank and more and more like owning the other for a night. Mingyu's not gonna go into the details but let's just say the whole house found out about their little game when Twelve went around the house with a black collar on for a whole day. Six gave the two of them a look and then offered Mingyu a website that does customized designs.

 

Not what he expected.

Not what any of them did.  

 

But the website is reliable, and cheap, and offers great quality of collars. Mingyu has three proofs tucked under his mattress. 

 

"What about this time, instead of just a day, we give it a week?" Twelve asks and Mingyu can't help but feel turned on. He's not sure what Twelve has in mind but if it's for a week then he's definitely excited. But that's bad sportsmanship. Thinking you'd lose before the game starts. So instead Mingyu thinks of practically owning Twelve for a week and it feels like holding a blank check. Who could say no to that?

 

"Sure." Twelve starts stretching his arms and cracking his neck to the sides, grinning at Mingyu.

"Is it bad that I'm actually still excited even if you win?" Mingyu teases and Twelve readies his stance.

"You won't be when you find out what I have in mind." Twelve threatens and Mingyu just smile wider. 

 

Mingyu bends his knees and lifts his arms up, he stares at Twelve smiling at him with the biggest shit eating grin ever and Mingyu takes the bait and dashes forward, closer to Twelve. This is gonna be a great morning after all. 

  
  


Twelve's first favor comes in five minutes after Twelve has him pinned to the wall.

While he was also on his knees.

With a blade pressed on the side of Mingyu's neck. 

 

It was around five when Mingyu taps out, admitting defeat. And a few minutes after they were called down onto the common room. That means they have thirty minutes to get ready before they have to be there which Twelve voiced out that was enough time for a shower. He Was already by the door when Mingyu glances up and Twelve asks if he's coming. Mingyu smiles and throws his gauntlets on the rack before catching up to Twelve.

 

They barely make it in time and Mingyu notices at least three pairs of eyes on both his and Twelve's still damp hair and their being barefoot. Mingyu sees Ten look at the numbers "09" etched on the shirt Twelve has on and rolls his eyes before turning back to look at front. Mingyu disregards them all and looks straight up to Seven on the podium at the side of the projector. He looks like a college student about to report and is trying to add a title page at the last minute, what with his puffy hair all over the place, probably from running his hands through it the entire night, and his glasses barely staying up on his face for more than a minute. 

  
  


"Okay. Everyone's here." One says and Seven looks up and scans the room before connecting his laptop in the projector. 

 

There were... well, Mingyu's not sure how many windows were open but he's pretty sure no sane person can work with all that all at once. Seven then starts reorganizing the windows, minimizing a few tabs, fitting the window on the screen. Seven even had to resort to using the touch screen of his laptop and Mingyu smiles and nudges Twelve. They always thought Seven looks like he's conducting when he starts frantically swipping and clicking with his fingers on his screen. Twelve smiles as well and they both stopped when Seven finally stopped tinkering with the screen.

You would too if you saw what's on the screen.

Two turns his head away and so do most of them, Six, and Ten were actually the only one who didn't react to it. 

"Could you please take it off screen, Seven?" Two asks and Seven nods before swiping the window close.

"That's what we're up against." Seven says. 

"I'm sorry, but I felt like that would make all of us understand what we're dealing with." Seven says. Mingyu understands what he means, but Mingyu's gonna need a week to get that image out of his head.

"That image is of a child being _operated_. I found a sort of back door on the files you guys found in the raid a couple of days ago. They have... they have more." Oh. Maybe Seven's puffy eyes weren't from the lack of sleep. 

"It's okay, Seven. When we get to the bottom of this, we can stop them." Six says. Seven takes a deep breath and nods. He wipes at his eyes a bit before clearing his throat. 

"They have what they call the Chimera Project. I'm gonna assume they derived it from the mythological creature. The chimera was depicted as an animal composed of more than one animal, a lion head, wings of an eagle, its hind legs are of a goat and its front legs are sharp talons with its tail with a snake head." Seven pulls up a photo and Mingyu stares at the rather weird looking thing.

"But common definition of a chimera is a mythological creature composed of parts taken from various animals." Seven then brings up a suitcase from somewhere behind him and opens it up. Mingyu's eyes widened when he sees a small green frog in a little box inside the suitcase.

 

"This is Phyl." Seven says. He smiles a bit and One even says "Hi Phyl." with a grin on his face. 

"He's a  _ phyllomedusa bicolo _ r, or in laymans term, the Amazon tree frog." Seven sets him down on the table and Mingyu watches as all of them leans forward. Even Twelve. 

"It's known as  _ sapo _ , or  _ toad vaccine _ , or  _ medicine of the forest _ . I kept referencing researches around that little guy from all the blacked out research papers and half of it lit up." Seven then brings up the blacked out pages and now half of them have filled out with white words. 

"They've been researching this for decades. This isn't just one deranged scientist trying to pull a frankenstein. This is a whole organized unit, gorgeously funded, and the worst part is I think they think they're doing the world a favor." Seven says. Mingyu heaves out a sigh and looks down at the table. Which was a mistake. 

 

Mingyu stares at the frog and he feels like he's staring at him. He knows he's freaking himself out. But when he moves to whisper something to Twelve, Phyl turns his head and follows him. 

 

Now Mingyu's really freaking out.

 

"The thing is, Phyl's toxin is really bad. Locals call it healing the mind and the soul by cleansing the body. Since Phyl's toxins causes increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, listlessness, and some even experience permanent damage. This isn't science. This is just years of tradition." Seven says. He then opens one window and there's a list of long technical words that's giving Mingyu nausea.

"These are all the components in Phyl's toxins that are also present in the human body. But these four," Seven clicks two and two windows pop up, "Dermaseptin, Adenoregulin, Deltorphins, Phyllomedusin. These are the four they focused on. Also Ten, sorry i kind of peeked into your files for reference. But-" "You  _ hacked _ me?!" Ten went unnoticed as Seven went on.

 

"First is Dermaseptin. Dermaseptin B2 to be precise. They fight microbes and can even combat cancer cells. The second is Adenoregulin. This specific one affects our mind. They influence neurotransmitters and compounds like, like adrenaline and serotonin. They heighten your fight or flight response into higher intensity than needed so it'll increase your chance in survival. Think of it like.. well, Spider Senses, basically." Seven went on like he didn't just reference a fuckign comic book in a real life crisis.

"Third is Deltorphins, this, paired with Dermorphin, act as opioids to relieve pain and like, induce happy feelings. Euphoria. And the last is the one they focused on more. Phyllomedusin act on the brain. In a way, they alter a person's whole personality and even alter their consciousness and behaviour. I'm gonna make a guess here that they specifically targeted Phyl's specific type of neurotoxin for this one peptide. If they're gonna create a chimera, an actual creature with parts from different creatures, if they were actually gonna make a monster, they want it to act like one. But it's gonna be one they can control." Seven explains. 

 

Mingyu's whole brain is frozen as he tries to understand Seven but he gets the thought. They're using poison to make people act like animals. Animals they can control. Like a rabid dog that bites everyone but its owner.

 

"But all this is just behavioural, right? These will affect someone, especially if they can manipulate the peptides as accurately as they want. But they haven't made a chimera. Not yet, anyways." Seven stiffens. Mingyu notices Six sitting straighter up his chair and Two's eyes flickering over Seven and Six.

 

"It's me." Mingyu whips his head just like the rest of them and Chan stands still by the door. Seven pulls up a file, Chan's file, and Six stands up.

"Seven, close that down. Now. Seven looks up at Six and then glances at Chan before minimizing the window. 

"It's true, though. It's me. I'm not helpless, Six. I'm not gonna hide behind your back everytime my past catches up." Chan argues.

"You're not what they made you, Chan. You're not-" "Not a monster?" Mingyu tenses at that and he glances at Seven who was looking down at his laptop.

"You're not a monster. You're our Chan. I'm not blinding you from what's happening, I'm protecting you from the people coming for you." Six argues.

"And what? You're gonna wait until everyone dies for me before you let me-" Six takes two long strides over Chan and slaps him in the face.

 

The whole room is silent. 

 

Mingyu can hear his heart beating in his head and he feels Twelve moving closer to him. 

 

Six was breathing hard, trying to keep his composure as tears started falling from his eyes. 

"No one in this room is gonna end up dead. Do you understand me? No one. Not me, not any of them, and not you. No one." Six says. Chan was already crying, wiping his face with the sleeves of his shirt as he steps closer to Six.

 

"I'm just scared." Chan cries out. Six pulls him in a hug and Chan buries his face on Six's chest. Six cries, too, but quietly. He shushes Chan as he rubs his back but his tears just keeps spilling out. 

 

Mingyu feels like he's intruding. But he's not. This is what they are.

 

They're a dozen of broken glasses from different stained glass portraits placed around each other to form a whole new portrait. 

 

Seven makes his way around the table, Two stops his to take off his glasses and then lets him go to move towards Chan. Six lets the younger go and Chan buried his face on Seven's shoulder. Chan's a couple of inches taller than Seven but that doesn't matter right now.

 

"You're not... I didn't mean it like that Chan." Chan nods and just clings to Seven as he cries. Mingyu feels Twelve press his forehead on his shoulder and Mingyu didn't need to look to know that he's crying. So Mingyu lifts his hand up as an invitation and Twelve takes his hand in his. 

 

"I think Chan would be of great help with taking them down. He knows them in a different way I do." Seven says and Chan pulls away from him and nods. Seven walks around the table and thanks Two for holding onto his glasses. Two had also wiped them so they're a lot clearer now. 

 

Seven pulls up Chan's profile and it's frustrating that they called him by a CH-VN. But Mingyu think's Six turning into Chan was really clever and really sweet. 

 

"The thing is. Their research on the Phyl was recent. It couldn't have been applied on Chan." Seven explains.

"Well their research on phyllomedusin, at least." Seven pulls up Chan's file from Ten's records and Seven shoots an apologetic smile towards the younger.

"But with regard to the other three, their research was extensive enough. Especially on Dermaseptin and Deltorphins. It seems like Chan's pain tolerance is off the charts. And his... he's practically healing himself right now." Seven says. Mingyu stiffens at that and he hears Chan say something to Six.

"Actually." Six speaks up. Seven looks up at Six and Six looks at Chan again before he nods. 

"Chan can heal other people too. he's done it to me." Six says. Ten whips his head towards Chan with his eyes wide and Mingyu can't help but tease.

"Looks like Ten's gonna have to look for another job, then." Mingyu jokes and Ten glares at him as everyone else laughs.

"We'll talk on that later. Maybe with Ten? My knowledge in biology and zoology is a bit rusty." Seven says.

"When did you even start reading about zoology?" Five jokes but Seven just looks up at him innocently, says 'Yesterday," And burries his nose down his laptop again. 

 

That's pretty impressive, even for Seven.

 

"Ah yes, here." Seven closes all the open windows and opens one with what looks like a profile of some sort.

"Their team used a specific type of amphibian chromosome to link in with your to add effect onto the dermaseptin, since most amphibians can regrow entire limbs at will. But what astounds me is this." Seven scrolls down and it's another profile. Another blank profile.

"This is the dominant chromosome they used. It's feline, obviously. But it's not just  _ a cat _ . It's part of the feline family but their genes are naturally territorial. rabbid at some cases, and not really approachable." Seven adds.

"Which tells us, what?" Six asks.

"Which tells us that they can input as much animal data into the human body but the dominant side will always be  _ human _ . But with the phyllomedusin, that can easily change." Seven says.

 

"You know what I want to know?" Eleven speaks up from the seat close to Seven.

"Who the fuck funds this project?" Eleven seethes. One chuckles and shakes his head.

"Lets see, bioengineered metahumans that are strong, can't feel pain, and can heal by themselves. And to top that off, they're the only ones who can control them. Who do you think?" One asks.

"They're gonna weaponize them?" Four asks. Mingyu does get why they would. Liek, putting in all the best aspects of different animals that makes them strong and you apply it on a human being?  

 

Right as Mingyu was about to raise his hand for a question, Four's phone starts blaring. He stands up, checks it, and moves around the table to Seven.

 

"The address. I set up perimeter cameras and motion sensors around it and i just picked something up." Four says. Seven helps him connect to the projector and there they see someone driving a truck into the fenced off warehouse. Why do people always use warehouses for hideouts? Like, At least use something more homey, you know?

 

A guy comes out of the driver's seat and another guy comes out of the passenger's seat and went to open the back. They both grab a box of something and Mingyu notices a shadow.

"A figure by the window at the top." Mingyu informs Seven opens another window with a screenshot of the video and he fixes it up so they'll see who it is. But after the guy knocked on the warehouse doors, he's being pulled inside. His friend drops the box and ran for the truck. But the guy running in his lands and legs caught up to him in a second and he pushes him on the hood of the car and slots his mouth on the guy's neck. Mingyu doesn't need audio for this one. He knows exactly what's happening. 

 

When the guy was done he lifts the guy at the back of the truck and he drives the truck inside the warehouse. Then everything went still on the video again. 

 

Then there was a loud _ping_ coming from Seven's laptop and Seven displays the buffed up picture. 

 

It was a lanky man, maybe around Mingyu's age, frowning. It's no mistake that he's the one who attacked the two delivery guys. but what Mingyu's not sure of is if he's good news or bad.

  
  
  


The sudden appearance of the lanky chimera was enough to set the house in a tense mood. Everyone was to suit up, everyone including Two and Seven and even Six. 

 

Mingyu sets his bows on his thighs and daggers on his lower back. They were told to wear the gauntlet and the shin guards just in case and Chan looks absolutely defeated.

"Why don't i get armour?" Chan asks Three. Three apologizes and says wait a week or so. 

When they pile up on the van, they realize belatedly that they're not gonna fit. So Two, Five, Six, and Chan will use one of Six's cars while the rest are in the van. 

 

The drive was almost an hour long but Mingyu feels odd being out in the daylight for a mission.

"No one's around for miles. The closest thing here is a gasoline shop a mile up north and that's not open most days." Jun supplies. Mingyu nods and he scouts the place. 

There aren't any high place he can use to scope the whole place so he takes a walk around the lone warehouse and he just knows the guy there is watching him. He comes back the same time One did. Doing the same thing he does.

 

"He's in there. I can feel him watching us." Mingyu says. Six huffs and asks One what's the safest play.

"We surround him, wherever he goes out we tail him and see where that goes." One offers. Well, yeah. That is the safest play. But it's also stupid. 

"I can go in, stun him before he gets close to me, and we have ourselves another chimera." Mingyu offers and all he gets are disappointed looks. Mingyu walks away from the huddle and he stares at the warehouse. There's a chipped off metal right in the front. Mingyu can see light filtering in. 

 

He hatches a plan and he braces himself for a whole day of lectures and nagging as he picks two arrows. One with a silver tail and one with clear tail. He sets the smokescreen in his bow and shoots. He has the light grenade pulled back already in his bow when the smokescreen explodes inside. Mingyu lets go of the arrow and watched as it went through the hole and waits for the sound to burst. He feels someone kick his knees from the back as someone headlocks him and another takes his bow. He was about to explain himself when the doors to the warehouse burst open and lanky guy comes out and with him, a shorter blinde guy in worn out clothes and another guy behind them, who looks familiar.

 

Mingyu sees Five and Eight move in front of their ground and Seven screams for them to stop. He pulls out the tab in his pocket and looks down at it and then up at the three. Lanky was in front of the two with his arms spread open like he's protecting them. 

"That's- but he should be dead!" Seven says. Mingyu was finally let go and he stands up and walks up to the three like the rest of them. Lanky guy could probably out run them all. Even Chan. But he doesn't look like he'd be leaving the other two anytime soon. 

 

"Lee? Doctor Lee?" Seven makes a move forward and Lanky growls. Five and Eight are at Seven's sides in a second. 

"We know you were working on the Chimera Project. But, I... I thought you died days ago?" Seven says. The guy in the middle tenses up and lanky and Shorty gave him a glance.

"I didn't want to. I didn't want to work for whatever reasons Hyungjin had. But he had us guarded twenty-four-seven. He- He killed everyone. He tried to kill me." the guy said and Seven made a step to move closer. Which ended with him being pounced on by Lanky. But Five was quick on his feet and he pulls lanky's arm down as he twists his body which would've ended with lanky hitting his back on the dirt, but lanky twisted his torso and landed on his feet on the ground and pounced on Five instead. Eigth pulls Seven back and sheilds him.

Five was out of his league here. If it weren't for the gauntlets, his arms would be torn to shreds by now. But he hangs on and even lands a couple of punches on Lanky. The doctor kept calling to lanky but he's not hearing it. he keeps slashing at Five over and over and Mingyu has no other choice.

He pulls out a regular arrow out and aims at somewhere vital enough that Lanky would stop but not vital enough to die. He hears the doctor begging him not to shoot and Mingyu was about to let go when Chan pounces on Lanky and rolls him off of Five. Seven helps Five up immediately and Mingyu looks around to see why no one's helping Five but Seven. He turns and sees them running to the car as a couple of vans make their way here. 

 

"Seven, get Five up and inside the car now!" The car with Two in the driver seat pulls up and Mingyu turns back and sees Chan still wrestling with Lanky. He was about to shoot Lanky for real this time but the doctor launches himself on to Chan in a hug. Chan froze up and Mingyu has no time for questions right now.

"Now that we've all made up, it's time to go. Come on. If you help us take the whole Chimera thing down, we'll help you." Mingyu says, offering a hand to the doctor and he takes it right in time when the van pulls up. Mingyu ushers them in and then went to the middle seat and opens up the roof. 

 

He turns and sees Six's car in front of them and then he turns back and counts how many cars are following them. Mingyu counts three so he bites his lip and takes out a red tailed arrow. But before he could take it out a hand pulls his down.

"Three says they could be local police. We can't attack them like that." Eleven says and Mingyu groans. Fine.

 

Mingyu takes a white tailed one and shoots it right in the middle. So he's sure that it'll burrow down the dashboard and erupts there. The first car stops immediately and the other two drives pass it. Mingyu tries the same technique but fails when the driver swerves on purpose and the arrow just scratches the glass in front. They're about to enter the free way so Mingyu has no choice. 

 

Mingyu goes back in and pushes Eight away from the door as he swings it open. 

"Hold me down!" Mingyu instructs him and Eight and Eleven holds him down as he leaned back and aims for their tire. One down. The last car remaining is steering well into his right side so Mingyu cant see. He instructs One to steer to the left and One did, almosts throwing Mngyu out of the van. He pulls a regular arrow and aims for the tire and he lets go. The tire pops and he's being pulled in by Eight and Eleven. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He sure hope those were police officers. Cause Mingyu went through a lot just trying to not kill them.

  
  
  


The first thing they did when they got back in the mansion was to find out more about doctor Lee and his two, well, sons.

"Dino's our very first success. He responded well to physical contact early and he..." doctor Lee stops and Mingyu follows his gaze back to Six.

"His name is Chan." Six says. Mingyu watches as Six sizes up doctor Lee as doctor Lee just apologized.

"Sorry. We called him Dino because of... uhm..." Doctor Lee then pats Chan's hair down, looking a bit unsure as Chan looks up to him. Chan then looks to Six, then to all of them, and bows.

"Please let them stay." Chan says. Doctor Lee was obviously surprised at the gesture and Mingyu smiles.

"We're all strays here, right Six?" One says. Six was still eyeing all three of them from head to toe before sighing.

"Alright. You can. But in exchange, we'd appreciate your help on some things. About Project: Chimera." Six offers a smile. Doctor Lee bowed and thanked them. His two sons then mimics him and bowed as well. 

"Oh right. Uhm, this is Xuxi," he points at Lanky, "and this is Mark." he motions towards shorty. 

"They're... they're like Di- They're like Chan." doctor Lee says.

 

Without the raging fury and bloodlust, Lanky, or rather Xuxi, actually looks kinda dorky. Long limbed and kinda too thin for hsi height. Mark just looks clueless. He may be shorter than Xuxi but he looks a lot more present. Chan pulls them in the house as doctor Lee walks in between One and Six. Mingyu knows that to doctor Lee might see this as One just being friendly but Mingyu knew it's him still assessing doctor Lee. 

 

Once inside, they introduced themselves one by one. 

 

Or rather One to Twelve. They even lined up by number.

 

Doctor Lee gawkes at them at first, with an unsure smile on. Which is understandable. 

 

"It's not a prank or anything. We have a system. We can talk about it later." Six offers and doctor Lee insists that they just call him Taeyong.

Six leads the way up to the common room. One and Three following suit as the rest dispersed in different directions. Ten dragging Five to the clinic and him asking Chan to bring Xuxi, as well. There was a moment where the three of them, Mark included, just stopped where they were. Six picked up on it, of course he would, he was basically the same with Chan back then. So he suggests they keep them company in Ten's clinic, doctor Lee gives him a sort of embarrassed smile and nods. Mark clung to his arm and Chan kept talking to Xuxi, explaining something Mingyu can't hear anymore as they make their way to the clinic. But before they go, Six went to Seven, checking up on him and asking if he was okay. Seven nods, like the liar he is, and gave Six a barely convincing smile. Six looks around and his eyes landed on him. Mingyu tensed up when Six's gave gained weight on him.

"Keep an eye on Seven, please." Twelve walked over and pulls Seven by his hand as he smiles at Six.

"We'll talk later." Six told him. 

 

Ah. Right.  _ That _ . 

 

Mingyu nods and before he could even turn around Mingyu feels someone trying to rip his ear off. He sees Six smile before going back to One and doctor Lee as Mingyu as dragged off to the common room. By the ear. Which may not seem as painful as taking a bullet but at least the bullet is quick. 

 

He's dragged to a chair and he's faced with three glares. It would've been more if One and Six were here but Two, Three, and Eight are enough for now.

"What the hell is your fucking  _ damage _ ?" Eight has always been the one with a more vibrant vocabulary. Maybe that's why Two is letting him lead. Eight was standing right in front of him with Two and Three wearing their  _ I'm dissapointed in you _ looks on either sides of Eight. 

"I'm seriously asking. Because I am so,  _ so _ close to tying you up in your bed and locking you up in there till you grow up." Eight says, or rather, he threatens.

"That's awfully kink-" Eight bends down and presses his palm on Mingyu's mouth firmly as he stares him down. The tips of his fingers dig down on Mignyu's cheeks rather uncomfortably.

"I'm not fucking finished." Eigth is definitely not in the mood. 

"You're reckless. You're cocky. You treat all of our mission like it's a fucking video game, counting off your kills like a  _ child _ . You don't  _ think _ before doing anything and one of these days your stupidity and ignorance will get you killed." Eight rips his hand off of Mingyu's mouth and straightens up, making his stare even more menacing. Mingyu automatically rubs his cheeks.

"I can put up with it, you know... Actually, i have put up with it. I have put up with you for years because you still get shit done." Which Mingyu knows. Eight has never been a fan of how he does his thing. 

"But you put Six at risk today." Mingyu freezes.

"You acted on your own and put a dozen others at risk." Eight says. His glare on Mingyu losing it's heat but nothing beats a look full of hatred like the sad disappointing stare of a friend you let down. 

 

Eight stalks out of the room and Two and Three seems to be satisfied enough with Eight's dialogue that they just let out disappointed sighs before walking out. 

 

Which is fine. Mingyu gets scolded almost every mission they get. And it's not necessarily the first scolding he got from Eight so it's really not-

 

**_But you put Six at risk today._ **

 

He did what he thought was the right thing to do given the circumstances. He's not about to start letting Eight of all people get into his head. 

 

**_But you put Six at risk today._ **

 

Mingyu bolts up off the chair and stalks out of the room. He sees Twelve and Seven idling by the door and from the looks of their faces, Mingyu's pretty sure Eight's voice was heard throughout the hallway. Twelve had on his  _ I understand, it's okay _ face and Seven is looking at him like they're about to tell him he's not their real son. Which is not what Mingyu needs.

"You both act like Eight doesn't chew me out on a daily basis." Mingyu says with the best neutral smile he can muster.

"Yeah, but he doesn't usually chew you out about putting Six in danger." Wow, Seven. Read the fucking mood.

"What he meant was," Telve intervenes, "we both agree with Eight but there could've been a better way to deliver the message." Twelve explains.

"Well, the message was received, nonetheless. Boo hoo. I'll cry about it in the shower later. Right now i want to eat but I'm not too sure Two wouldn't pass on the opportunity to put a sedative on my food so they can keep me here." Mingyu says, already walking towards the kitchen.

"You want anything?" Mingyu asks over his shoulder as they make their way through the dining area.

"Anything is good." Twelve says.

"What? Is Nine gonna cook?" Seven asks. Mingyu smiles as he walks in the kitchen and Twelve laughs.

"Personally, Nine cooks way better than Two. Or maybe I'm just biased." Twelve says as he pulls Seven in between his legs as he sits on the counter. Mingyu looks through the fridge and the first thing he sees is a jar of tomato sauce. The expensive kind Two only use for special occasions. So he takes that and decides that pasta is a good sort of comfort food.

"You never cook. I've seen you beg Ten to make you a sandwich." Seven says and Twelve laughs. 

"He usually cooks at night. Nobody ever catches us cause it's his room that's right above the kitchen. Chan did, once. But we gave him food and I don't think he was awake enough to remember." Twelve says and Mingyu turns and sees Seven looking at him with wide eyes, Twelve's arms are around his neck as he kept talking. Mingyu laughs and winks at Seven before turning and looking for more ingredients he can use as Twelve and Seven talk.

 

He's not really hungry. Not even the slightest. But cooking calms him down. And distracts him. Twelve honestly wasn't supposed to know that he does cook. But Mingyu had gone down to cook one night and as it turns out, leaving a naked Twelve alone in his room in the middle of december is not the smartest thing he could've done. So he managed to keep Twelve from saying anything about it by keeping his mouth occupied. By food or by other means. Right now, mincing bell peppers, onions, and garlic with Twelve laughing at the story Seven was telling him, his mind should've been occupied enough for him to stop thinking about Six lying in the ground with one of Mingyu's arrows sticking out of his chest. His checks the pasta and the steam hitting his face should not make him think of Six lying dead on the ground. The red pasta sauce is starting seem like a bad fucking idea when all he can see is Six's blood. 

 

Fuck Eight and his fucking mouth. 

 

Mingyu takes a deep breath and flinches when he feels a hand on his back. 

"Anything we can help with?" Seven asks from his right and Twelve takes the wooden spoon from his hand and starts stirring the sauce. Seven grabs for a spoon and starts stirring the macaroni with a smile on his face.

"You need to stir it so they won't stick. I thought you said he knows how to cook?" Seven says to Twelve and Mingyu pinches the back of his neck.

"Hey! I cook good!" Mingyu defends his honor and Seven slaps his hand away.

"He does. He makes great food, regardless of how he makes them." Twelve says and Seven rolls his eyes.

"You're a completely biased opinion." Seven comments and Mingyu pushes him away with his hips. The pasta's done already anyways.

"He's good with his hands, okay." Twelve comments as Mingyu grabs the pot and pours it over the colander in the sink.

"Am i?" Mingyu asks and Seven groans.

"That just backs up my claim of you being biased." Seven says as he walks around Mingyu and walked up to Twelve. 

"I can show you how good I am with my hands, if you'd like. You seem unbiased enough." Mingyu teases and Seven rolls his eyes.

"Is flirting, like, some sort of emotional buffer you have or are you just actually insatiable?" Seven asks. Mingyu's not sure if he's seriously asking or not so he just laughs as he shakes the colander to let the pasta drip faster. 

"Hey, are we gonna bake this?" Twelve asks and Mingyu shrugs.

"Let's add an ungodly amount of cheese and then bake it." Seven suggests and Mingyu nods. He leaves the pasta to drip as he looks for anything they can use for the dish. He's not sure if the glass trays are safe to use but they're just gonna let the cheese cook anyways so he pulls it out. Mingyu preheats the oven and asks Seven to clean the dish as Mingyu checks on the sauce. Mingyu then asks Twelve to pour the pasta on the pot of sauce and stir as Mingyu and Seven grates a lot of cheese. Mingyu even adds cheese on the pasta itself and Twelve grins as he stirs. Mingyu pours the pasta on the dish and lets Seven and Twelve put the cheese on top as he soaks the pots he used in soap water. He'll let Seven clean those. He pushes it inside the oven and sets their timer to five minutes and he turns and sees Seven and Twelve scrubbing a pot each as they laugh about something. Mingyu sighs, leans back on the counter, and just watched them as he waits for the timer.

 

Ten minutes later Mingyu finds himself with a plate of pasta in front of him an a fork in his hand but his mind was miles away, in front of an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. 

 

Mingyu really has to congratulate Eight on this. After years and years of naggin he had finally succeeded in getting inside Mingyu's head. 

 

Seven and Twelve stuff their faces with food and Mingyu gives them a half hearted laugh every time they say something funny. He laughs along like its a chore and he's good at it. Great at it, even. Twelve glances at him a few times and even went so far as to feed Mingyu which Mingyu accepts. He taste nothing as he chews and he diverts their attention by asking them something about whatever they were talking about.

 

But before Mingyu has had the chance to, the doors open and it's Xuxi running straight to the table with Chan right behind him. Mingyu's instincts had him pulling out the dagger strapped on his back as he stands but Xuxi is just staring at the food in front of them. Mingyu deflates and pushes his plate in front of the lanky man. Lanky chimera. Whatever. 

 

Mingyu sheathes his dagger and clears his throat.

"Peace offering?" Mingyu offers. Xuxi looks up at him, then at the plate, then back at him, then turns to Chan.

"What does that mean?" He asks. His voice was, well, for lack of a better term, big. Mingyu sees Chan smile.

"It means he's apologizing. And the food is for you." Xuxi takes the plate and starts digging in.

"Why is he sorry?" Xuxi asks with food in his mouth making it sound like  _ wais su sry. _ Chan's eyes flicks to him and back to Mingyu, seems like he's not sure if he should tell. Mingyu shouldn't put Chan in that sort of position.

"Back in the warehouse. The, uh- The smoke. and The light." Mingyu says. He hopes it explains it enough and sure enough it was. Xuxi spits out the food, places the plate down, and pushes it back towards Mingyu.

 

Mingyu knows he deserves it, he knows he deserves at least a punch out of all this. But  _ god _ did that fucking burn.

 

Xuxi's whole face fell. His loopy grin completely gone and his demeanor totally went sideways. He had this neutral look on but his eyes were piercing through Mingyu's skull. Twelve was about to get up but Mingyu pushes his shoulder down. Chan looked like he was about to cry, and that's when One and Six decided to show up with doctor Lee. 

"Where's Mark?" Seven asks. Mingyu sees One and Six trying to read the situation as doctor Lee answers.

"He stayed with... uh... Five?" He turns to Six and Six nods with a polite smile on his face.

"Yeah, Five. Turns out he's fond of tigers." Seven makes the sound he does when he realizes something and he stands up.

"Felines! You use felines as your second dominant chromosomes!" Seven then points a fork at Xuxi.

"He must be a cheetah, then!" He exclaims and doctor Lee smiles. 

"Yeah. Yeah, he is." Doctor Lee is definitely impressed. 

"Since when are you an expert in animals and biology?" One asks, a grin on his face that's obviously a sign that he's teasing Seven. Seven gave him  his  _ you're not important enough for me to show emotions _ look before sitting down.

"Since last night." Seven says. One frowns and now it's Six who grins. 

"How did you know?" Doctor Lee asks as he moves closer to the table.

"His running. We saw footage of him earlier killing a delivery man. The way he moved and his speed." Doctor Lee flinched at the topic. 

"Well, i bet you still don't know what Chan is?" Doctor Lee asks and Seven frowns. 

"Not really. Even with his medical files and the files i got from your team. They're all encrypted. But I do know that you purposely chose an aggressive one. One that's never been domesticated. One that's wild, ruthless, and blood thirsty. Unlike the Chan that we all know." Seven says the last part with a smile to Chan and Chan blushes. 

"We called him Dino for a reason." Doctor Lee sits down in front of Seven and pulls Chan down next to him, in front of Twelve. 

"Our team had a, well, let's just call it a blueprint, of a saber tooth tiger." Doctor Lee says in a fond voice. Which is weird.

"He was aggressive... and wild... But I know he was just scared. I was in charge of checking their behaviours. I guess it's like training them?" Mingyu can hear a tint of distaste in his voice and he's starting to not not trust him. Starting to.

"I hated everything in that place. The people there were either completely behind the whole project, or they're like me. Being blackmailed, held against my will." Doctor Lee's voice fell quiet.

"I hated that whole place. But the one thing I didn't, were them. Chan and the others." Doctor Lee pets Chan's head as Xuxi moved to sit on his other side.

"They moved us around. They only have one actual team in multiple areas, even in different countries. But they had to keep the staff to a minimum so there would be less chances of any leakage whatsoever."

"When you apprehended the lab here, years ago, we were on a different location. We were in Hong Kong then, in Xuxi's lab. The news reached us and I was scared that something happened to Chan. So I managed to sneak Xuxi out with all the panic and chaos happening." Just then Xuxi places his hands on the table and he turns into a cat, climbing on top of the table. He was a lithe, long limbed one with what Mingyu's gonna assume as brown cheetah prints on his mustard fur. Chan smiles before doing the same. He pads through the table as an elegant white cat and tackles Xuxi down.

"Nobody knew they can completely turn into cats. Nobody but a handful of personnel like me. So we managed to slip Xuxi from under their noses. And then they had this brilliant idea to change locations to make sure no one in the staff is helping the escapee. I begged them to let me take my cat and they didn't think twice. Laughing at my face because they must've thought I was some spineless employee they have that they can manipulate." Doctor Lee chokes up a bit at that and Six appears behind hm, a hand firm on his shoulder.

"But we went to the station we had in Canada. That's where Mark was. But it was hard getting him out. Everyone was either being watched or always watching. Xuxi had to cause a distraction for us to get Mark out." Mingyu's sure the memories aren't ones he'd like to keep remembering, much less sharing, but he smiles as Chan and Xuxi chases each other on top of the table. 

"I sneaked Mark in through another coleage, and we were sent back here. We've been here for almost three months. Continuing our researches in that damn building for twenty hours a day. They can't risk flying us to another location and freeing another one. They must've known it's one of us but they knew better than to admit that they've been outsmarted, you know?" 

"I hid Mark and Xuxi in that warehouse ever since we got here. It's quite a drive from there to the lab but I had no other choice." 

"The day you got there, that night. Hyungjin knew that someone was going to get taken. Maybe for intel, interrogation, that kind of stuff. And he made sure that it was him. He shot me but it just went through my shoulder. I played dead and waited for all of you to go before going out there myself. After that we've just been hiding in the warehouse. Stocking up on food and not leaving for days unless totally necessary. We had help from someone I know. He helped me take care of them when I couldn't leave the lab and in exchange I gave him meds the lab was making. He's still not responding to any of our-" "Tonic?" Twelve asks. Doctor Lee's face whips towards Twelve and nods.

"You know him? Have you..." Doctor Lee trails off when he sees Twelve's face. 

"He was being watched. They must've known you know him. Someone was paying men to keep him from talking about your research." Mingyu adds. Doctor Lee shakes his head and burris his face in his hands.

"I told them that I'm... I gave them the idea to sell the meds. I told them he was just a customer... He wasn't..." Doctor Lee chokes on his words and Xuxi immediately pads towards him, nudging his head on the man's arm. Chan moves towards them and just looks at them.

"He lead us to you." Twelve says.

"He gave us an address and it was the warehouse. He must've thought you were dead and wanted someone to find them." Twelve adds. Mingyu looks away when he hears him sob through his hands. Six took the seat in front of Twelve and rubs a comforting hand on doctor Lee's back. 

"We're sorry. We could've helped him if we did a better job." Twelve says. Doctor Lee shakes his head and rubs his eyes roughly.

"Don't. You've helped us enough." Doctor Lee says. Mingyu then sees Six glance at him and Mingyu wasn't sure if he really did until he did it again. He gave him a look and then turns towards doctor Lee. 

 

Right.

 

"I want to apologize, too." Mingyu lowers his head and folds himself down in a bow. "Earlier. In the warehouse. It was me. I was the one responsible for the smoke and the flash grenades. It's probably my fault that they showed up, too. I don't know." Mignyu says. He straightens back up and the edge of Six's lips are in a tight frown. 

 

Mingyu never wins. 

"But I'm not gonna be a problem for a while. I'll stay grounded for the time being, so you don't have to worry." Mingyu pushes his chair back and walks around the table.

"Nine." Six's voice was tight. And of so fucking stern.

"Don't Eight's said enough. I'll just rest up and be back for the briefing later." Mingyu knows he's being immature. He knows he's taking this one step too far. But fuck everyone else. He's allowed to feel frustrated. He's specially allowed to be frustrated by himself.

"Twelve's in charge of the pasta." Mingyu says as he passed by one near the door and he didn't even bother turning around after he hears another chair raps against the floor. And it's kind of funny how he should be sure that it's Twelve. But he's not. Or maybe it's just his wishful thinking that's wishing for more than one possible answers. He's not sure. And he doesn't want to be awake enough to find out.

 

Mingyu obviously meant he just wanted a nap. Just a regular,  _ fucking nap _ . But his head starts throbbing the second he stepped out of the door way. His steps falters and he hears someone yell his name as he falls to his hands and knees. His throat closed up, his heart starts pounding a hundred miles an hour. His elbow buckles in on him and he feels an arm on his chest pulling him back before he faceplants on the floor. He thrashes out of their hold. He feels more hands trying to hold him down and that's when he stops fighting and lets himself fall unconscious.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeeelp  
> Mingyu fainting ending the chapter became a thing now so...
> 
> Well yeah.  
> Might make a forth chapter with Hansols pov or a stand alone oneshot type before the second fic of the series. The secind fic will show 3 chapters again but 3 different povs.
> 
> I had so much fun writing this and the whole codename thing is fun now lmao i hated it at the beginning but now im only gonna call hansol as twelve lmao.
> 
> Please tell me what you think since this is the first ive written anything like this so any comment is really appreciated! (*´∇｀*)
> 
> THANK YOU SO KUCH FOR READING!  
> PLEASE STICK AROUND IF YOU WANT MORE BECAUSE NINE'S/MINGYU'S STORY IS NOT EVEN A THIRD OF THE WHOLE STORY SO I HOPE YOU GUYS LOOK FORWARD TO IT!
> 
> yell at me @punk_assnerd on twitter ٩(●˙—˙●)۶

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said in the tags, I'll keep editing the tags as I add chapters. I wanted to do this as one whole fic but adding them chapter by chapter can help me in making the endgame ships be a surprise. 
> 
> Dont hate me if you think this pair shouldve been the endgame one over the other, I've alreayd outlined the story so yeah.
> 
> I hope you guys find this interesting! [And I hope marvel doesnt sue me for making Mingyu a sort of copy of Hawkeye lmao]  
> Each members specific skillset will be explained more as the story goes so I hope you guys stay tuned! 
> 
> Thank you for reading!!! Tell me what you think in the comments or yell at @punk_assnerd on Twitter!!


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